About the Highlander Empowerment Student Services Referendum (HESSR)

The Highlander Empowerment Student Services Referendum (HESSR) provides additional staff, services, and resources through the Ethnic & Gender Centers. The fee is $14.00 per quarter. Of that, $12.00/quarter is divided among the eight centers. The remainder is returned to students in the form of financial aid.

UCR students voted to approve HESSR twice. In Spring 2015, students voted for a Student Services Fee of $14.00 per quarter to benefit the seven existing Ethnic & Gender Centers. This version of HESSR included a "sunset clause" of 5 years that required a new student vote to continue the fee.

In Spring 2019, students voted to add the recently established Undocumented Student Programs as a center receiving HESSR funding and to remove the need to reaffirm the referendum by vote every five years.

Allocation and Governance

The Ethnic & Gender Centers develop annual budget plans  to ensure that the HESSR funds are used in the way that students intended when they voted, and are approved by the Referendum Student Advisory Committee (RSAC).

HESSR funds provide:

• Staffing to help students find on- and off-campus support and resources
• Peer mentoring and peer education programs
• Support to host or travel to conferences
• Assistance for Common Ground Collective projects that get students involved with community-building activities
• Co-programming with student organizations and student-led initiatives
• Support for the ASUCR Diversity Council initiatives that protect student interest and diversity
• Additional computers and educational materials for each Ethnic & Gender Center
• Operational help for Ethnic & Gender Centers

For more information, visit Resources.