Athletics fee gets positive nod from student vote
The referendum for the athletic student fee increase passed Tuesday with 2,415 votes for the increase and 2,159 against, said Steven Russell, ASUSU student advocate vice president at an Executive Council meeting Tuesday.
An additional $65 a semester will be added to student fees beginning fall semester 2009 and will go toward supporting the USU athletics department, he said.
USU Athletics Director Scott Barnes was at the meeting and expressed his gratitude for everyone who voted.
“We appreciate so many people coming out to vote,” he said. “More people turned out to vote for this than in the general elections.”
Students will also be paying between $76 and $153 extra for tuition next year, said USU President Stan Albrecht in a presentation Monday afternoon explaining proposed second-tier tuition spending.
While the final amount is still to be determined, Albrecht said it will depend on what central administrators decide is needed to maintain the university. The passing of the athletic fee referendum will also be taken into consideration, he said.
Because the referendum passed, Albrecht said, “… we will consider lessening the tuition increase because students will already be paying additional fees for athletics.”
Although some money from the tier two tuition increase will go toward budget cuts, Albrecht said the increase is not in response to the approximate $27.5 million budget reduction USU has accumulated during the past year. Rather, it is something that occurs on a yearly basis and depends upon the needs of the university.
Albrecht reinforced his commitment to providing only the highest-quality education to students, and maintaining an exceptional institution.
“Our first priority is the students, and then protecting the core of our institution,” he said. “We will not load the state’s budget problems on the backs of our students.”
The money each student pays for tuition is separated into two tiers, or pools of money, for the university. Tier one, which is the larger of the two, goes to the state and is thrown into a pool with every other state-funded university. That money is mixed with tax dollars and then handed back to each university.
Tier two is kept at the university and goes to the advancement of programs and initiatives on campus, said Grady Brimley, ASUSU president. While tier one tuition does offer the university a significant source of funding, Brimley said USU would have trouble operating from that pool of money alone.
“There are some things you can’t do with tier one tuition. You can’t do initiatives or place the funds in special areas. You’d have to fire a faculty member to do something like that (if you didn’t have tier two).”
Thirty-two percent of USU’S budget is covered by tuition, while the remaining 68 percent is funded by the state, he said.
This year $100,000 of tier two funds will be allocated for the use of student initiatives, Brimley said. After a survey done by ASUSU, Brimley said the majority of the university requested two things be done with the money: Offer more student internships, and provide additional public parking.
In response, $45,000 will be used to hire an internship director, and $25,000 will be used to open after-hour parking.
During the presentation Albrecht also disclosed where the remainder of tier two tuition would go. Support for the library and the implementation of additional electronic journals will account for $450,000; $350,000 will go toward the promotion and retention of professors, as well as ensuring professors receive tenure; $250,000 will go toward the operating budget and $150,000 will go toward globalization initiatives.
Albrecht also presented a list showing the tuition and fees at 20 Western universities; and while USU students currently pay $4,445 a year for their education, they ranked second to the least in terms of the cost of tuition. University of California, Davis students pay more than $8,600 a year, Colorado State University students pay more than $5,800 and University of Utah students pay approximately $5,200, Albrecht said.
“USU’s tuition fees are a great bargain considering the quality of education that is being offered,” he said.
–greg.boyles@aggiemail.usu.edu