Students at Skagit Valley College Whidbey Island campus have recently been heard echoing a popular battle cry from the Revolutionary War — no taxation without representation. Though they’re not exactly getting taxed, the students’ feelings are similar to those of the patriots. If they’re going to be forced to pay for services, they’d like a say in what those services entail. In short, they want to be heard.

“There’s a big group of students here that feel we have no voice,” student leader E.J. Bittner told the Board of Trustees at their meeting in Oak Harbor last week. “We feel that voice has been taken from us.”

Various student government members and leaders banded together and approached the board with their concerns over the recent cut of the student activity adviser position in next year’s budget. With a budget gap projected at just over $5.5 million, the Whidbey Island campus is set to see the loss of 11 staff members and reduced time for others in the 2011-2012 school year.

The student activity adviser on the Whidbey Island campus is currently held by Penny Perka. The position is funded by the Student and Activities fund which is money that students are required to pay above the cost of their tuition and materials. This year students pay a fee of $1 per credit (up to $17) each quarter that goes into the fund, but the fees are scheduled to increase next year to bring in more revenue.

A student activities fee committee recommends to the administration and the board how they would like the money allocated through a yearly budget.

The Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges states that the activities fees’ purpose is “funding student activities and programs consistent with the institution.”

According to student government representatives, the students chose to create and fund the adviser position. Perka’s salary is $37,000, $50,000 with her benefits package, and is approximately 5 percent of the Student and Activities fund, which has about $1 million in it.

“I do not agree with the operating rules that allow one man to override the decision of our governing student representatives at will,” Bittner wrote in a statement addressing SVC President Gary Tollefson’s decision to cut the position. “This feels like taxation without representation, a situation that galvanized our country into action many years ago.”

Bittner said he personally feels that Perka has acted as a rudder for him during his college years helping him to make corrections on his path. He said with her guidance he was able to work to his full ability and reach beyond his comfort zone. She helped him fill out scholarship applications, get involved with student elections, assisted at his orientation and instructed him on how to head up the Communication and Technology Club of which he is now president.

“This is her job, and she has performed marvelously,” Bittner said.

Student government Abigail Mumaw agrees with Bittner that the position is of extreme importance. She said if the position is eliminated it will be difficult for students to fulfill their project goals and get their needs met on a consistent basis.

“The student adviser position is vital to the Whidbey Island campus,” she said.

So far, the students have collected a petition with nearly 300 signatures in support of funding the position.

Perka has been serving as an adviser for SVC for 12 years and said she was surprised to hear that her position was set to be eliminated next year. She said she was touched by the students’ jumping into action on her behalf, but wasn’t sure if it would be enough to change the outcome.

“I just don’t know how it’s going to play out,” she said.

There are some student leaders that do not support refunding Perka’s position through the Student and Activities fee fund. Treasurer Robert Metzger said the group did some amazing things with tutoring through the fund this year, and that he thinks it’d be better for the money to be concentrated in that area.

“If you are going to bring the position back, have the college pay for it, not the students,” Metzger told Tollefson.

Assistant Attorney General Lisa Wochos pointed out that if there is a dispute between the activities fee committee and the board when it comes time to finalize budgets, there is a mediation process the two sides can go through to try and resolve the issue. If the issue is not resolved within 14 days, a resolution committee made up of board, administration and student members will vote to settle it.

Tollefson declined to comment on the issue at the Board of Trustees meeting on the situation.