By Grace McFadden
Between March 3rd and 5th, the University of Connecticut student body has the opportunity to vote for Student Body President, Vice President, Trustee, and several other Undergraduate Student Government positions in the 2020 Joint Elections. Additionally, there are several referenda on this year’s ballot.
One such referendum is the Nutmeg Publishing Fee Increase. WHUS sat down with eighth semester Digital Media & Design major and Nutmeg Publishing’s Editor-in-Chief Madison Busick to discuss.
Busick explained that Nutmeg Publishing is the student organization responsible for the annual yearbook and Nutmeg Magazine.
“Nutmeg creates a yearbook every year. So, it covers the major events that happen on campus. Seniors can also get their pictures taken for free to be featured in the yearbook. All fee-paying undergraduate students at the Storrs campus get a yearbook sent to them for free after their graduation, which is really exciting. We also create an online magazine called Nutmeg Magazine every semester.”
In this year’s referendum, Nutmeg Publishing is asking to increase the student fee by a dollar a semester, or two dollars per year. As explained by Busick, the initiative is asking students to approve this increase for some time in the future.
“We currently from each student get three dollars per semester in the student activity fee in your fee bill. We are looking to increase that to four dollars per semester for a variety of reasons. Basically, costs are going up and we have to increase our budget to continue offering the services that we do. The vote and the referendum is if you approve that increase or not. The increase would not go into effect for two years, so it would be in 2021 I believe.”
There are a number of reasons to ask for the funds. Busick explained that costs overall are increasing, and the referendum would allow Nutmeg Publishing to continue their work. She also said that it could help get the organization some new equipment.
“A lot of costs are going up. Just for inflation, the cost of printing books is going up, minimum wage is going up, stuff like that. A lot of our office equipment is outdated, so we need to update that to continue our production quality.”
Busick encouraged students to vote in the upcoming Joint Elections.
“You go to the website vote.uconn.edu. It’ll be March 3rd through 5th. I think it opens at noon on the third, and closes at noon on the fifth. You just go on that website and you can vote.”