By ELLIOTT DONNER Staff Writer

Last spring, student fees increased by $25 to give 11 on-campus organizations extra funding and now those organizations are putting them to use.

Kimberly Ludwig, Student Government Association president and a senior business management and entrepeneurship major, said the student fees are giving her organization and others the ability to keep functioning and better the activities they are already involved in.

"These fees were increased in order to keep up with inflation and increases in activity costs," Ludwig said.

The organizations who increased their fees included the Student Government Association, the Union Board, KLPI, club sports, the Tech Theatre Players, debate team, spirit groups, athletics and The Tech Talk.

A committee was also created so any organization could make a proposal to get extra funding.

The total of all increases added up to $25 and the extra fees were voted on and put into place.

Ludwig said the increase has helped students as well as organizations at Tech.

"The SGA has benefited by being able to extend programming and make events bigger and better."

The SGA received a $2 increase on the fee sheet.

Ludwig said the extra money helped last year's Homecoming greatly.

She said the SGA was able to work with the Union Board to have a kickoff party which led to Homecoming having more student attendance than there has been in a long time.

Also, Ludwig said this year's Big Event will be better than last year's.

She said last year everyone who participated was supposed to get a T-shirt for the event, but funding for the shirts was only enough for most of the participants to receive one, not all.

This year Ludwig said that with the extra money everyone who participates in the Big Event will have a T-shirt.

The Union Board has also been able to do more for students at Tech for less money from the additional money added on to fees.

The Union Board received a $4 increase on the fee payments.

"This year's Homecoming was great because of the extra money we had to work with," Stephen Bell, the president of the Union Board and a senior biology major, said.

Bell said the Sister Hazel and Blessid Union of Souls concert they sponsored with the SGA before Homecoming last year was free of charge because of the extra money.

Bell also said the Union Board is having a bigger concert this year with the band Switchfoot coming to Tech.

The band is coming to Tech April 28, and student tickets will only be $10 because of the extra funding they have.

There have also been small organizations benefiting from these fee increases such as Tech's water ski team.

"This $.75 increase may be small, but it got us a new surface for our jump ramp," Stacy Smith, the president of the ski team and a junior construction engineer technology major.

Smith said a lot of the team's equipment is old, and any extra money for the team helps.

She said she also hopes the increase will eventually get the team a new ski boat that works, as opposed to the out-of-date, broken boat they are practicing with.