Julio Velasquez, vice president of Associated Students, Inc., is challenging the Career Center’s policy of charging alumni a fee starting at $45 for utilizing their services in finding employment.

On March 10, the ASI board voted unanimously to issue Marlyn Albert, director of the Career Center, a formal recommendation to give alumni a grace period of one academic year after graduation to utilize the Career Center free of charge.

Velasquez said with all the money and time students have put into Sacramento State, it’s not fair to charge them more money the second they are out the door looking for jobs. He said he would send the recommendation to Albert some time this week.

A continuing dialogue between Albert and Velasquez began March 4, a day before Velasquez put the issue on the agenda for the March 10 ASI board meeting.

Albert disagreed with Velasquez’s notion that the fee is unfair.

She said the fee is a vital source of funds which helps pay for student employees, promotional materials and Monster Trak, an Internet job search service which charges the Career Center $2,800 a year.

“Both students and alumni benefit from this,” Albert said.

Velasquez said he’s willing to settle for a semester-long grace period if Albert won’t agree to a full academic year.

Joshua Wood, vice president of university affairs for ASI, said it’s a good piece of legislation and if Albert doesn’t respond to the ASI request, they will set up meetings with Albert and possibly go to Sac State President Alexander Gonzalez.

“We’ll assert power on behalf of students,” Wood said.

Albert said she’s open to dialogue on the subject. However, she said she’d only consider instituting the grace period if an alternative source of funds can be committed to offset the loss of $1,350 per year, which the alumni fee provides.

Albert said that while she welcomes the discussion she thinks the debate obstructs the more important message that it’s in students’ best interest to use the Career Center while they’re still students.

“A more important platform would be to encourage students to get into the Career Center before they graduate,” Albert said.

Albert also said that waiting until after graduation to use the Career Center doesn’t look good to employers in terms of demonstrating initiative.

“If students know there’s no grace period, they might get into the Career Center before they graduate,” Albert said.

Albert said that a grace period wouldn’t be extremely relevant to students because the Career Center has only had 30 alumni from last year’s graduations use their services. However, she said the money the center does get from them is important.

Albert said the only money the Career Center gets from the university pays for the full time staff. She said all other services are paid for with funds generated by the Career Fair, donations and the alumni fee.

“When you have a zero operating budget that means everything counts,” Albert said.

Velasquez said the university’s five auxiliary organizations including the University Foundation, which he sits on the board of, might be a possible source to supplement the money the Career Center would lose from the grace period.

Velasquez said he worries that the university is taking it for granted that alumni are an important source of funds.

“If we shut the door on them now, how can we expect to get monetary support from them later on?” Velasquez said.

“They’re getting a good deal,” Albert said.

She said she’s done research that reveals career counseling services in the private sector would cost alumni around $65 an hour and that a firm offering a packaged deal that includes everything the Career Center provides would cost between $1,000 and $3,000.

“I have used the Career Center a lot as a student because I know once you graduate those kinds of services cost money,” said Dolores Navarro, a junior psychology major.

“Take advantage of it while you’re here,” Navarro said.