At his final meeting as a member of the Board of Trustees, Hogan Medlin found himself in a lonely — but familiar — position.
Four months removed from casting the single unfavorable vote against a 6.5 percent tuition increase, Medlin, the outgoing student body president, was the lone dissenting vote again Thursday, this time against a five-year transportation plan that calls for increases in student fees and parking permit prices.
He found the same thing lacking in the latest proposal: the student voice.
The plan will offset upcoming transportation system costs of $6.1 million by increasing student fees and instituting a series of new permit charges. Medlin cited concerns that student input throughout the plan’s development was insufficient.
Sallie Shuping-Russell, chairwoman of the board’s audit and finance committee, presented the changes to the board for approval after her committee approved the plan Wednesday.
With the new system, the student transportation fee will increase by $14 annually beginning next fall to cover students’ share of transit costs and reduce parking subsidies.
Starting in 2013-14, student permit prices will see increases of $5.78 to $7.60 per year and employee permits will increase by $5.70 to $16.13 per year as determined by a sliding scale that determines prices based on income.
Although the Department of Public Safety has been engaged with the student body, Medlin said the plan as a whole was derived without significant input from students.
Zach Smith, the liaison between student government and the advisory committee on transportation that drafted and submitted the plan, said the board had almost finished the proposal when it was presented to him.