Opinion: The Student Body Fee is Due for an Increase

Have you noticed that clubs in the Top 40 are only getting about half as much funding as they request? Or that several student work positions have been cut? Or even just that Treasury was relentlessly plugging a themed public on raising the student body fee in your email inboxes and the Quest? Hopefully, you have noticed some or all of these signs; if not, I fear for your reading comprehension. 

To summarize, due to a rise in inflation and a decrease in enrollment, the student body fund is not going as far as it used to, so Senate is discussing raising the student body fee. Then-Vice Treasurer Jules Flynn ‘27 shared at the themed public on September 19 that a proposal might be to raise the fee $20 per semester each year over five years, for a total increase of $100 per semester (from $155/semester or $310/year to $255/semester or $510/year) by the 2030-31 school year at the earliest. This was a rough estimate and not a final proposal, as Treasury still needed to consult with the administration and do more research.

I was curious about the background of this issue, so in true history major fashion, I spent an excessive amount of time over fall break digging into Institutional Research data and Quest archives for more context on the history of this issue. What I found is that this is a very consistent pattern: the student body fee has, going back at least fifty years, been raised regularly every three to six years, very roughly keeping pace with inflation and also slowly increasing over time. We are overdue for a raise, as the fee was last increased in 2018 (from $300/year to $310/year), and the last really substantive increase was in 2015 (from $260/year to $300/year). This is very much not a new situation. In fact, debates on the subject are falling into very well-worn patterns. 

Our problem: due to inflation, the cost of items has gone up, while the student body fee has not increased accordingly. This same situation befell the Reedies of 1979, when one student wrote in the Quest, “Because the student body fee has not been raised for a few years, while the prices of almost everything else has been, the buying power of the caucus [senate] has decreased drastically, perhaps by as much as forty or fifty percent” (“All About Funds,” September 7, 1979).

The results of this inflation: Clubs get less money than they asked for, identity groups struggle with funding, student work positions are cut and/or underpaid, and Senate has to make difficult decisions about what funding to prioritize. As Senator Yaseen Hashmi said in 2018, “You don’t want to be the Czars that cut Midnight Surprise, but we don’t want to be the Senate that cuts funds to Low SES” (“Renn Fayre Budget Heavily Cut, But Free Condoms Saved,” February 23, 2018).

The concerns: students are understandably hesitant to spend more money. This was shared by the Reedies of 1954: “Discussion began with a consideration of whether or not an individual student would rather have additional student body services and activities or $6.00 in his pocket. It was decided that individual students would invariably choose the money in the pocket, rather than the activities. Thus the board decided that this consideration is no help in determining whether or not a fee increase is desirable” (“BOC Gives Report, Argues Fee Raise,” April 26, 1954).

Will raising the student body fee affect financial aid? This is also not a new concern! In 2015, Senate Beat reported hearing concerns “from other students who said they would not want an increase in the student body fee if that meant that the amount of additional financial aid spent would translate into one fewer full-ride financial aid package that the college could offer” (“Student Senate Proposes Increase in Student Body Activities Fee,” March 6, 2015). Don’t worry, Executive Director of Financial Aid Anna Hitchcock told the Quest this year that the student body fee is and will continue to be covered by financial aid, and Reed covers 100% of demonstrated financial need (“Students Polled Support an Increase in the Student Body Fee,” October 3, 2025). Financial aid will continue to meet demonstrated need, even as that demonstrated need rises due to increases in tuition and fees. The Reed administration acknowledges that this is a problem; they’re already working on a budget realignment to deal with decreasing enrollment and increasing costs of financial aid (“Budget Realignment Planning for FY27–FY28” email from Audrey Bilger, October 13, 2025).

An argument in favor of raising the fee: tuition has been rising at a much more rapid rate. Tuition has been increasing by around 3-5% each year for the past twenty or so years; this year’s annual tuition is $2,420 more than last year’s. Since the student body fee was last raised in 2018, tuition has gone up by $15,430. The proposed increase is only 1% of that. As Student Body Vice President Nick Flore said in 2015, “This [the fee increase] kind of compared to that [potential tuition increases] is kind of a drop in the bucket” (“Student Senate Proposes…”).

What happens if we don’t increase the fee? Student funding will suffer. This is the same threat shared by the Student Body president from 1979: “But unless the students, ALL the students feel the same, nothing will improve, it will steadily decline until we are left with orange juice socials with taped music, and one movie every other week, not to mention a boring Renn Faire and Paideia” (“An Open Letter to the Reedies,” September 28, 1979).

In short: it’s not that our current Senate is failing. It’s not that they are uniquely mismanaging funds. It’s simply that every few years, we come to the realization that inflation has gone up and the student body fee must follow it, and we’re behind on this cycle.