AHEC implements new fees for students

ORGS CAN NO LONGER RESERVE AHEC SPACES FOR FREE

As of July 1, student organizations from the Auraria Campus will need to pay a fee if they wish to use spaces in buildings owned by the Auraria Higher Education Center for meetings or events.

AHEC room reservations were formerly free so long as the person renting the room represented a student organization on Auraria Campus. The details regarding the explanation of these new fees was communicated mid-Spring 2017 semester by the Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board (SACAB).

“There were several people that were concerned about this new price and how it was going to affect students,” said Frida Silva, the 2017-2018 Chair of SACAB. “In order to raise awareness and provide general information on the reasoning behind it and how it would affect students, there was an information session that was held by the SACAB members to the student body at large.”

During the annual Student Leadership Summit in early August, students were provided a packet detailing the pricing structure information for using AHEC-owned spaces. The Student Leadership Summit aims to provide orgs with management and organizational skills.

The packet was titled “Tivoli Spaces Pricing Task Force,” and it detailed how the new fees for these spaces were “necessitated by the rising cost of basic maintenance and repair of these spaces.” The forms go on to list how “dramatic cuts in Higher Education funding,” as well as “the evolution of use of campus spaces both interior and exterior,” were some of the other reasons for the new fee.

Different categories were created to accurately apply fees for use of student organizations as well as for commercial purposes by outside groups and event type. Student orgs would be given a discounted rate and pay 5 percent of what outside organizations would pay for use of the same AHEC spaces. For example, if students wanted to reserve the Tivoli Turnhalle for four hours, they would pay $50 while outside groups would pay $1,000.

“A 5 percent charge might not sound like a lot of money, but some student organizations don’t have independent finances to afford even that much,” said Amanda Kister, CU Denver’s Graduate Assistant for Non-Traditional Greek Life, during the Student Leadership Summit.

The fees “are set in stone at the moment but there will always be an annual review by AHEC and SACAB representatives,” said Silva.

Students are still able to reserve rooms that are owned by CU Denver at no cost. Some of these locations include the Business School, Lawrence Street Center, and the Student Commons building.

If students need to reserve a room with AHEC and they do not have the ability to apply for funding to cover these fees, they can reach out to the Finance and Funding department that manages funding requests for student orgs as well as SGA.

“In order to apply for funding, student orgs must already have a reservation in place with AHEC. We don’t do funding for meetings, only events,” said Brigitte Nguyen, the student Chair of Finance and Funding. To find out if your gathering is considered an event or a meeting, student orgs should reach out to the Finance and Funding department.