The Student Senate will consider a motion Wednesday opposing several recommendations made by the Textbook Rental Advisory Committee that could lead to students paying hundreds of dollars more for their textbooks next fall.

Senate members also will vote on whether to double the shuttle bus fee in order to retain the controversial operator of the Panther Express for the next three years.

The senate will meet at 7 tonight in the Arcola/Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. All senate business will follow the release of the Student Government election results.

The committee has recommended that professors can require their students to purchase supplementary textbooks and has outlined adjustments in the fine system for overdue textbooks.

Senate member Jessica Catto, the sponsor of the resolution, said forcing students to pay for their textbooks defeats the purpose of the textbook rental system.

Catto said if passed, the cost of supplementary textbooks could easily exceed the cost of the regular textbooks.

Student Body President Katie Cox agreed.

“Students assume that they will pay about $100 for all of their books,” Cox said. “They should not have to worry about having to pay $300.”

Another recommendation made by the Textbook Rental Advisory Committee would revise the late fee system for textbooks.

Currently, students who turn in textbooks after their due dates are fined $2 per book, plus 25 cents per day per book. Students may not be fined more than a total of $10.

The recommendation would impose a fee of $10 for every book returned late, with no maximum fine.

This would mean that students could have to pay hundreds of dollars in fines for books they return just an hour after the time they are due, Catto said.

Cox said while she could see students who return books weeks after the due date having to pay fines of that size, the proposal was too harsh for students who miss the deadline by a matter of minutes.

“It’s too much money right away,” Cox said.

In other business, the senate will consider whether to endorse a proposed contract that would have H & H Transportation of Charleston continue to run the Panther Express shuttle bus through the spring of 2004.

The proposed legislation would raise the shuttle bus fee by as much as $5.30, to $10.90 per semester, said Senate Speaker Adam Weyhaupt. Each student currently pays $5.60 per semester.

H & H was contracted by the university last December to run two Panther Express buses for seven semesters, but unexpectedly halted service last month after owner Scott Harrison claimed he could not provide service for the bid price, a flat rate averaging $55,177, or about $23 per hour of service. H & H and the university agreed to terminate the contract, but later signed a new six-week contract paying H & H $42 per hour of service to run a single bus through the end of the school year.

Under the new contract, H & H would be paid about $37 per hour to run two buses. H & H could afford the lower price as the contract would run over a whole year rather than just six weeks, Cox said.

If senate members approve a shuttle bus for next year, they must then choose whether to run one or two buses.

A survey conducted by senate members over the past few days shows students split evenly over whether to have two buses, a single bus or no shuttle bus at all, Weyhaupt said.

If one bus ran, students would have to pay an additional $1.30 per semester. Two buses would mean a $5.30 increase.