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(DAILY_WILDCAT)

By Jennifer M. Fitzenberger
Arizona Daily Wildcat
August 29, 1997

KAMP's $1 fee requires Regents approval

KAMP Student Radio's student-voted $1 fee will not be tacked onto UA tuition bills until the station acquires approval from the Arizona Board of Regents.

"We knew it would not happen overnight," said James Saper, KAMP's assistant general manager, who has asked Associated Students and Arizona Students Association leaders to help KAMP iron out the referendum's wrinkles. "Completing it will be one of those sticky issues."

Before the fee is approved, KAMP has to make money management decisions dealing with University of Arizona's budget office, the Bursar's Office, and must obtain final approval from the regents, said Associated Students President Gilbert Davidson.

"Now that they have the students' backing, they have to go through the rest of the process," he said.

In order to add KAMP to the regent's agenda, a board member must make a request or it must be brought up by the UA president's office, said Tony Seese-Bieda, the board's assistant executive director for public affairs.

"The board will discuss the motion and ask questions," he said "It doesn't sound like it would be a big concern."

Seese-Bieda said the board has not seen a similar issue in the past couple of years.

"They might have to break some ground here," he said.

ASA Director Ryan Anderson said KAMP ran into summer "glitches" because the fee will create differential tuition between Arizona's three universities.

When the fee is added, UA students will be paying $1 more than students attending Northern Arizona University and Arizona State University.

Anderson said although it should not be a problem getting the Regents' approval, giving the go-ahead on KAMP's fee may be the start of other differentiating fees, including a Memorial Student Union renovation fee in the future.

KAMP will also have to decide on how to refund the fee for students who do not want to pay it, he said.

"KAMP has gone through some changes (in management) recently so Gilbert (Davidson) and I are taking them under our wing," Anderson said.

He said he is experienced dealing with student fees because he dealt with a $1 ASA fee that was voted upon and passed at Arizona's three universities in 1994.

"It (KAMP) is a great organization, but they have never dealt with this before," Anderson said. "We'll be helping with the politics."

He said differential tuition was not an issue in 1994 because it affected all campuses.

If approved, the $1 KAMP fee will be in effect for three years.

Ben Zislis, KAMP's general manager, said he hopes to put the best case supporting the fee together and present it to the regents by November.

"The Regents are here for the students, and the students spoke and support the $1 fee," Saper said.

KAMP volunteers began working on the referendum fee in Spring 1995 and last semester gathered more than 4,200 supporting signatures, more than one-tenth of UA's population, landing them a spot on the 1997 general election ballot .

Saper said 75 percent of students voted in favor of the fee.

The money raised from the fee would be used to make equipment and station upgrades, in hopes of landing an FM location.

"It is gong to take some time to get a station number and an antenna," said Adlai Wilson, KAMP's station manager. "We want to get an FM antenna - that's the main thing - whether we take over an existing one or get a new one."

He said he hopes to be broadcasting on FM by spring.

"I hope it will go smooth," Wilson said. "But there is going to be a lot of red tape."


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