Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill that will let UF exceed a 5 percent limit on bonds on a student fee to the renovation and expansion of the Reitz Union.
The Student Activity and Service Fee is a fee students pay per credit hour each semester, along with tuition.
State university boards of trustees are required to establish the fee, which cannot increase by more than 5 percent each year.
This new bill, signed Friday, grants UF an exception for the Reitz Union. The fee already increases by 5 percent each year, which was the maximum until Scott signed the bill.
Last month, the UF Board of Trustees approved issuing $50 million in bonds for the expansion of the Reitz Union, pending Scott’s signature.
Reitz Union Board of Managers Chairman Sean Fahy said the campaign to renovate and expand started last year.
He said about 5,000 students signed an initiative.
Former UF Sen. Jonathan Ossip said students voted against a new fee in Spring 2010 elections.
“It just seems unfair to students who are trying to make ends meet,” he said.
He said this is essentially creating a new fee anyway.
The renovations and expansions are estimated to cost about $70 million, Fahy said.
Fahy said a team compiled of members from the Board of Managers and the Make it Reitz campaign will start looking at potential designs and getting student input.
“It has finally come to realization that it’s going to happen,” Fahy said.
Contact Samantha Shavell at sshavell@alligator.org.
