The Student Senate was asked last Wednesday to review and support a ballot initiative to lower student fees and to prevent fees from being increased faster than personal income.

The "Community College Governance, Funding Stabilization, and Student Fee Reduction Act" will lower student fees to $20 per unit, place numerous checks against increasing student fees, make community college funding independent of K-12 funding, and ensure local control in community college districts.

The Senate voted to postpone action on the ballot measure for one week to give senators time to review the initiative.

Californians for Community Colleges, a group that supports the act, is still gathering signatures to put the initiative on the ballot in November. The act will require at least 60 days of notification before fees are raised, eliminate mid-semester increases, require a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to raise fees, and prevent the government from increasing unit costs more than the rise in personal income.

"When the times get tough in the state, the state cuts the colleges and it raises your fees," said Richard Hansen, president of the FHDA Faculty Association.

The initiative, he said, was important because it took away the incentive from the legislature to raise fees.

The initiative will make funding for community colleges depend on community college enrollment, and not on K-12.

Current laws mean that community colleges’ funding per student may decrease as early as 2010, according to Californians for Community College, a group pushing for the initiative. This will be caused by a decrease in K-12 enrollment, said Hansen.

Gathering enough signatures to put this initiative on the November ballot will cost $2 million, said Hansen.

Anna Callahan, the president of the Student Senate, called this "a chance for DASB to expand and get involved politically."