USG has a list of goals set for the upcoming semester, but first they must re-examine an issue from the past – the shuttle fee.

Graduate Student Senate rejected the $20 per semester fee that USG supported in November, so the University’s Board of Trustees could not move forward with any plans set forth for the shuttle services.

USG President Sundeep Mutgi said he will propose a resolution that will only cover undergraduates and also wants to form a committee between USG and GSS members.

“USG will be moving forward for an undergrad fee regardless of whether GSS decides to move with or without us,” Mutgi said. “[If GSS does not get on board with the resolution] the details for how to handle that disconnect will be broken down throughout the next semester.”

The debate started in October when Senator Joe Edens called for undergrads to vote on the possible fee, which was eventually approved by a majority of students during a poll on the University’s Web site.

Eden’s resolution included the University’s proposal to add a downtown route to the shuttle service and to pay for parking lot maintenance.

On Nov. 23, Student Welfare Committee Chair Chris Schiazza presented a new resolution sharing USG’s support for the added fees, which led to concern about knowing what the fee would cover.

A select few members addressed the point that specific details were absent in the resolution, but the members went on with the vote regardless, approving it with a 20-13 vote.

“We well represent the student body,” Mutgi said that night, saying that the vote was 60 percent in favor, which matched the results of the online poll.

“At that point, I thought we were smooth sailing with this resolution, until I found out that GSS voted on this issue too,” Schiazza said.

On Dec. 3, Mutgi sent out an e-mail to all members of USG, updating them on the progress with the shuttle fee after he met with the Board Of Trustees.

“Unfortunately, we have hit a bit of a snag,” Mutgi wrote in the e-mail. “… because GSS did not approve of the fee, the Board is not prepared to blanket approve the fee.”

He also added that members of the Board would be “looking at numbers of graduate students that use the shuttle in order to determine what to do next with the grad students and the fee.”

“Right now they are still tabling the resolution because they do not want to support one of the student bodies over the other one,” Schiazza said.

“We haven’t technically lost time and use of the new fee … we will still plan out the new route and have it go into effect for the 2010-2011 year, we will just have to wait a bit longer to make it official through the Board,” Mutgi went on to add in the e-mail.

Schiazza said USG has not been working with this resolution over winter break, but as the semester progresses, there will be an ad hoc committee created that will consist of both USG and GSS members that will work towards a compromise for the fee.

“It might seem that the GSS and the USG are in opposition to each other, but nothing could be further from the truth,” GSS Representative at Large Steve Dinda said. “The efforts of the USG to expand the shuttle service to include a late night downtown route are commendable because of the benefit it would provide to the entire student body.”

“While the GSS strongly supports the shuttle service, we did not support the expansion and fee as it was proposed to the student body because the details of the expansion were vague,” Dinda said.

“We believe that it is in the best interest of all students that before a fee is levied against the student body that the details of any changes or expansions to services that the shuttle provides should be made clear, and that such a fee should take into account individual student use,” Dinda said, who added GSS is looking forward to working together with USG on a number of different issues to ensure benefits for the whole student body.

Edens, who has been leery on the fees from the beginning, said he was “pleased to see the Board of Trustees decide to postpone their consideration of this fee.”

“The split between [USG and GSS] needs to be explored and discussed,” Edens said. “The fact that either organization has not been presented a precise proposal or projection as to what the fee would go towards is concerning.”

Edens also questioned the student body’s dedication to the issue.

“Students have been, in my opinion, very apathetic about this fee,” Edens said. “I have received the notion from many students that $20 a semester is not big enough to get in a twist about.”

“My hopes are that this finally gets taken care of one way or the other and that the student governments can move on to other issues,” Schiazza said.