For the first time in Ohio University’s history, student representatives will have a say in how their money gets spent.

The newly created Student General Fee Advisory Committee will present recommendations to the Budget Planning Council —­ which eventually makes a proposal to OU President Roderick McDavis — about what programs the students’ general fee funds.

“This is pretty exciting for students,” said Kent Smith, vice president for Student Affairs. “We’re not talking about peanuts. There are a lot of things to consider here for students. I can’t think of a better form of shared governance in its purest form.”

Historically, OU has collected students’ tuition and general fees, combined them into a general fund and not tracked how much specifically went to each program. The Ohio Board of Regents mandates that general fees should be used to fund non-instructional student services and programs.

The general fee, charged to all undergraduate students, nets $31.8 million in revenue for OU. Each student enrolled in 11 to 20 credit hours on the Athens campus pays $591 per quarter.

OU added a $60 fee for Winter, Spring and Summer Quarters to cover Baker University Center costs.

“Baker has multiple sources of funding,” said William Decatur, vice president for Finance and Administration. “State capital went into this project, but the largest portion of the funding is student general fee. The $60 was specifically targeted to Baker debt service and to help defray operating costs of the building.”

Decatur said the effort to identify how the general fee was being used came from discussions with student government leaders last spring.

Student Senate passed a resolution Sept. 19 calling for the creation of a student-run committee to determine how the general fee is spent, according to their Web site. The committee is composed of four Student Senate members, four non-Student Senate undergraduate students appointed by McDavis, a graduate student appointed by the Graduate Student Senate and an OU employee appointed by McDavis.

“We’re glad they created the committee. It will be a learning process for everyone,” said Chris Diehl, Residence Life commissioner of Student Senate and member of the general fee committee.

General fee revenue is divided among athletics, student enrichment and campus life, and health, wellness and safety. Until recently, the university had no documents to show specifically where the money went.

“Obviously the university had a budget process and made incremental decisions every year,” Decatur said. “Both tuition and general fees were lumped into the overall revenue budget and then all pulled out without segregating those two revenue sources.”

According to the most recent breakdown of the general fee, $463,000 has not been accounted for.

“It’s being spent,” Decatur said. “We’re trying to match this revenue to other needs. We are still looking at some of the space issues. If there’s anything else left after that, it means that money is being spent on instructional activities.”

OU would lower the general fee and raise tuition to make sure the general fee funds only non-instructional interests.

“The same amount of money is going out of a student’s pocket and the same amount of money is coming into the university, it’s just we’re now matching the numbers appropriately,” Decatur said.