SGA unanimously agreed to recommend a change to the dorm lockout fees in a Nov. 28 meeting.
The current lockout fees are $25 for getting locked out of one’s dorm a second time — the first time is free — $50 for the third and $100 for the fourth.
The changes proposed by the student fee advisory committee are $15 after getting locked out the second time, $30 for the third and $50 for the fourth.
The proposed changes will be submitted to Stephanie McBrayer, the associate vice president for Housing and Residence Life. Members of the administration will then decide if they will make any changes based on the report.
Sophomore Vice President Brad Lewis, the SFAC chair, said, “The main goal of the current program isn’t necessarily to charge students a lot of money, it’s realistically to curb students’ behavior. While the program they have works, I feel as though a lower price would still work and also take less [of] students’ money.”
Lewis and the committee argued that a lower fee would still encourage students to remember their keys and that some students neglect locking their doors just to avoid the threat of the current fee, which leads to security issues.
Sophomore President Phoenix Vu rose in support of the motion.
“I’ve heard from a lot of different students that they really don’t like the lockout fee. I mean, we’re all broke,” Vu said. “The fees are a lot, and I think it is just unrealistic. They can make people want to not forget their key, but I think it’s just a bit too extreme.”
Graduate student representative Blessing Odusola supported the motion.
“I did speak to a few students and yes, it is a ridiculous amount because people forget their keys for a number of reasons: they could be rushing, they could lose them or they could be like freshman coming to college for the first time — they’re not familiar with being responsible,” Odusola said.
“So, while the amount is there to help them with that responsibility, it is still a large amount. For struggling college students, that is a lot of money for one semester, so I agree with reducing the fee,” Odusola said.
Vice President Colby Wilson supported the motion.
“One of my friends, her car ended up catching on fire. Her friends were essentially running back to the car to get her keys out of the car so that they wouldn’t be locked out of the dorm room. If she were at a certain amount of lockouts, that’s not her fault,” Wilson said.
Lewis pointed out that housing’s goal with the current lockout fees is to change students’ behaviors. “That is working. They have a lot less lockouts. The vast majority of students don’t ever pay for a lockout, so we kind of tried to split the difference and really take into account student’s wallets while also taking into account what the administration is trying to do,” Lewis said.
SGA will show the recommended change to housing, which will decide whether or not the administration installs the modified fees.
