Chico State University students may well face the choice of hiking their own fees or seeing services cut and the student union hours slashed.

On Feb. 11, the Associated Students board of directors, the top student-elected panel on the Chico State campus, is planning to discuss fee hikes that will amount to about $25 a semester.

If the board passes the proposal, the plan will have to go through another series of university committees, and be approved by new university President Paul Zingg, before going to the general student population for vote.

Michael Dailey, AS president, said a combination of sharply increased health and workers compensation costs for AS employees, and a shrinking enrollment are combining to make the fee hike necessary.

Besides the regular state fee, which for the spring semester was $1,023 for full-time, undergraduate, California residents, students pay a series of campus-specific fees.

At Chico State the students pay an "activity fee," which funds AS programs such as the Community Legal Information Center and the Women's Center, and a "union fee," which covers the operational costs and debt service for the bonds that renovated and expanded the Bell Memorial Union.

For spring the activity fee was $42 a semester, and the union fee was $130 a semester.

The amount of money brought in by these fees is connected directly to the enrollment, and Dailey said that is the problem.

In 1998, when the students approved the last activity fee hike, according to Dailey, they were promised there would be no additional fee hikes until 2008.

However, that promise was predicated on an enrollment that stayed in the 16,000 range.

In 2002 the enrollment was about 16,200 individuals, for the coming 2004-2005 academic year, Dailey predicted enrollment will fall to about 15,300 students.

Dailey estimated that drop in enrollment could cut activity fee revenue by as much as $200,000 a year.

To make up for the enrollment slippage, Dailey is supporting a $7.50 a semester increase in the activity fee.

The union fee pays for the staff that maintains and operates the BMU, and pays off the bonds that built it.

Dailey is calling for a $17.50 per semester increase in the union fee.

The combination will add $25 a semester to the local fees.

On top of this the governor's budget proposal calls for a systemwide, 10 percent increase in the state fee.

"We are saying to the students we are continuing to offer programs. Are you willing to up your tuition $25 a semester?" said the student body president.

He said without the increase in the union fee, the AS would be forced to close the BMU at 6 p.m. Currently it is open until midnight daily.

"We don't want to pay more for less. We want to pay more for more," said Dailey.

Unlike the Associated Student organizations on the other 22 California State University campuses, Chico State students own and operate both the bookstore and all campus food services.

Dailey said a decline in enrollment at Chico State will cut sales both in food services and the bookstore.

"Our businesses are going to hurt no matter what. That's just reality, but we can keep the BMU healthy (with the fee hike)," said Dailey.

Assuming all of the various committees and President Zingg approve the proposal, the students will vote on it at the regular campus elections in April.