Along with saying their goodbyes to the departing vice president of Student Affairs, the Student Government Association asked the university to reconsider its proposed fee for official transcripts and make some changes to the campus contact directory in its April 25 meeting.

Northern Kentucky University President James Votruba made a stop at the meeting and took time to hear student concerns about a planned new processing fee for official transcripts.

Senators said they wanted a “more cost-effective solution” for students to obtain their transcripts. Suggested solutions included a designated number of free transcripts upon graduation or implementing a lower fee, such as $5 as opposed to the $10 or $15 proposed.

In the current proposal, the price projected for NKU students is 70.94 percent higher per transcript than the state average for public universities in Kentucky, according to SGA’s resolution. If passed, the fee would make the price of NKU official transcripts to the most expensive in the Commonwealth.

Currently, students are not charged.

SGA also passed a resolution requesting the registrar’s office require students to specifically opt in to being included in Find It!, NKU’s online directory of student, faculty and staff contact information. Currently, all students are automatically listed in the directory unless they opt out.

Privacy concerns are some of the main reasons why they would like the policy to change.

The rationale behind SGA’s request to change the policy is that Blackboard provides students with rosters for their classes and an emailing feature, making Find It! unnecessary. To combat the possibility of professors not using Blackboard, SGA presented the idea to make Blackboard more universal.

SGA conceded that giving the option to opt in or out of Find It! could be confusing for incoming students who are not aware of the feature and its uses.

Before leaving the meeting, Votruba took the time to commend SGA for their work throughout the past school year. “Coming from the man himself, it’s a nice booster at the end of the year,” SGA President Kevin Golden said.

Story by Claire Higgins