Yale Daily News

How do I opt out of this fee? If Yale is going to increase the amount, they should at least make it clearer that you don't have to pay.

Great, thanks for spoiling the surprise!

Your financial aid package will cover the cost! Don't opt out. If you're not on financial aid, you can probably cover the $75 anyway.

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. Don't leave me a $75 surprise on my fall term bill. If Yale had notified me of the change, I'd be far more likely to go ahead and pay the fee.

As is, I'm opting the hell out.

It's not a $75 surprise - it's a $25 surprise - as you will recall there has been a student activities fee of $50 for the entirety of the time any current student has been at Yale. Why a $25 increase in the student activities fee freaks you out so much is beyond me, especially given that tuition, room, and board went up about $1500. Obviously you can't opt out of those, but the $25 is still nothing in comparison.

Everyone should pay the fee (as yccfriend said, if you genuinely can't afford it, you're on financial aid and it will be covered) - that money comes back to all of us - where do you think Yale funding for student groups (among other things) comes from?

Except, SY '10, the university told us about the tuition increase, and no-one said a word about this fee going up. That's just shady, no way around it, and shows a lack of respect for the students who are expected to pay it, especially in this economy. If the YCC sees that more sudents opt out this year, they have no one to blame but themselves.

To opt out, go to yale.edu/sis and click on "Yale College Student Activities Fee Waiver" (the last item in the list).

I see lots of superfluous events that is covered by this Student Activities Fee... so unless someone can give a breakdown, I'm opting out.

"if you genuinely can’t afford it, you’re on financial aid and it will be covered"

Sorry but just because my parents can afford tuition doesn't mean they are willing to pay for my student activities. And I certainly can't afford a $75 ticket to spring fling. I just think there's a pretty big gap between those whose parents foot the bills without asking and those who do.

why don't we just make it so that only the students who pay get access to the events and benefits the activities fee supports (e.g. all club/uofc funding, all club sports funding, and all ycc/ysac events/programs, including spring fling, fall show, and the dvd library)? this idea solves the free rider problem currently going on that's the result of ideologically-motivated students (since, as we all know, the students on financial aid aren't really affected by this one way or the other since sfas covers the fee regardless) who are more, in a manner that reveals their silliness, prone to take a "stand" on something like a $25 raise in funding than a multitude of other worthy causes to fight for/against.

Those of you who subscribe to the "Either you can pay or you're fully covered" point of view are ignoring the vast expanse of middle class students, those who were hit the hardest by the recession. My family still has to come up with the part of the tuition that isn't covered by financial aid, not to mention other expenses, like travel and books. I'm not going to make enough this summer to cover the student contribution, either, so I've taken out a loan. Every $75 counts.

The only thing on the list of things that were covered by this that I went to last year was Spring Fling, for which I would have been happy to buy a ticket. I'm paying my senior dues, because I know I'll go to most of those events, but I'm not going to pay the student activities fee, since I don't go to those events anyway. Maybe if more of it went to funding student organizations so that we could actually DO something, and not to those $5000 parties, I'd be more willing.

Hey Yo,
The Fee Covers:
All Student Organization Funding
All Campus Wide YCC Sponsored Events (Volume's Big Parties, the Branford Crushes and Chaperones, The Now Dance, The list goes on)
YCC Events (Most are pretty cheap with the right planning, so don't think the fee is going to Mr. Yale, etc) And biggest (which gets the most fee),
Spring Fling
Also
Inflation hurts...bad the original fee bought about 12-15% more than last year's $50.
$75 is real money, but it creates literally hundreds of opportunities, events, and shared experiences for all of Yale. If you can afford it, or on financial aid, you should pay it, for all our sakes. It makes life better, ya know?

Given that anyone with a Yale ID can attend Spring Fling and other events funded by this fee, why is it only charged to Yale College students? Seems unfair...

Could the Dean's office make it so that you could direct your fee to where you want it to go? I think that would be the best way to gauge what the students really care about in terms of the activities they want funded. That way they'd also be required to provide a list of projects in need of funding, with a breakdown of each project's budget, so students could be informed about where their money was going.

I might be a little old to post here, but I always thought the activities fee was an incredible deal. If you can't afford to pay the fee, that's fine (and I understand being hard pressed for money), but if you can, I see no ideological reason to be opposed to it. And I do think that students who do not pay should be charged admission to the events that the fee covers. For $9 a month, you get access to hundreds of events, clubs, and other activities, and at a vastly subsidized rate!

Don't get mad at Yale that they tack an additional $75 on to an already large bill, get mad at all the students who think it's simply awful that Yale even asks students to help fund their own activities. It's not money that goes to the administration, it's money that ends up back to benefit everyone. And when people (people who can afford the fee) start spouting off about it, just think for a minute about everything that Yale does offer as part of the regular tuition (a residential college system, college budgets in the tens of thousands of dollars per year, master's teas, guest speakers, cool film showings--i.e. everything that your friends at other colleges don't get, even though they pay roughly the same amount of tuition), and then I think you'll be more than happy to pay the fee. I paid it every year. And you should too.

@ #13:

1. the ycc already dilineate with a great deal of specificity in their reports (to the very dollar and the specific event/club) exactly how much of your money goes where.

2. why not advocate the administration for the bigger picture issue here -- e.g. articulating where your ~$35-40,000 tuition/room and board goes exactly towards with the same degree of specificity as opposed to bullying the representatives who put in countless hours per week putting on events/activities/helpful programs with a minimal budget, yet an unparalleled level (at least relative to the yale admin) of transparency?

are you kidding me? you guys are actually debating about such a trivial sum. you don't have to be richie rich to pay $25 for crying out loud.

So, it's funny, #6 that everyone acts like this is a total surprise when the YDN actually reported on it as a possibility back in April: http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/comments/28954. Sure, it wasn't officially announced until our bills arrived, but, again, it was a pretty small increase relative to the amount of the bill, and presumably most of you actually look a $20,000+ bill before you pay it. I'd hardly call that sneaky.

I don't think financial aid actually covers the fee-if you sit down and calculate the difference between tuition/room and board and your financial aid, you'll get $75 less than what your bill actually is (if you waived Yale Health Plan). This is such a comparatively small amount that Yale thinks they can sneak it in without people realizing that, like Premium Yale Health Plan, it's not covered by financial aid. I'm waiving the fee, and I'd much rather pay dues for individual clubs and tickets for events like Spring Fling (didn't the Fall Show already require tickets?) than a blanket fee that covers mainly things I don't participate in.

you know, for a student body so liberal, y'all are really strongly against this collectivist action. It doesn't matter when Obama raises the income tax by 2% on your parents, but it does matter when Levin raises the activity fee by $25?

Lol.

Some of us aren't liberal. Some of us also never go to YCC events, and are members of groups that don't get YCC funding. Opted out. $75 bucks is a week's worth of food, kthx.

I don't think the people who are worried about the $75 fee are the same ones whose parents Obama is going to tax. We don't all have parents who make that many figures.

Also, Obama's raising taxes to give poor people health care and to get us out of a recession. The student activities fee is being raised so the YCC can throw expensive dance parties. It's a question of priorities as well.

Ahhh, the vocal minority.

It's pretty sad to see people complain about a fee that only benefits US (unlike the real world, any pork barrel politics going on here actually will reach you). I agree, they should've notified students of the fee change. But beyond that, the complaints are without merit. So WHAT if you don't participate in the YCC events? Are you truly that heartless and selfish that sponsoring events and activities that other people DO take part in is a gross violation of your civil rights, as you are presenting it?

It's funny how Yalies can commit themselves so fully to volunteer in helping people having no connection to themselves whatsoever, yet once it becomes a Yale-wide matter, it's a waste of time and money. Shame, really.

Probably the most pathetic thing posted here, was that the fee hike should be "challenged" by boycotting it. This is essentially the equivalent of "let's boycott our job by refusing a paycheck!". The YCC spends the money on YOU, refusing to pay out of whiny, silly, vindictive spite and snobbery will only hurt you, on the off chance you one day DO decide there's a YCC activity you've been missing, except oh wait, it was CANCELED from lack of funds. Genius at work.

Stop being superficial about your altruism. It starts within Yale. Great, you love your suite parties, and that's all you do. Awesome. But if even a lower-class student like myself can suck it up and pay the fee, it just makes you self-proclaimed members of the middle class look like selfish, spoiled little pricks who refuse to support anyone's recreation but their own.

Man, this is just sad (the comments, not the fee hike)