LETTER: Athletics is not free for students

To the editor:

Being the sports fan that I am, when I saw videos online of the Spectrum’s student section, I literally began to salivate. When I learned at SOAR that I was able to get into basketball games for free, it only made me that much more excited to participate in USU Athletics.

“What a great place,” I thought to myself. I get to be in one of the nation’s rowdiest student sections, and all I have to do is swipe my card. I’d laugh at my friends at BYU, who had to buy an “All-Sports Card” for $113. Paying to get into athletic events? What a joke.

Now, as I sit here writing this, I realize that the joke is on me.

I’m a full-time student, so I pay $412.94 in student fees. Out of that, $123.22 goes to Athletics. When I texted my BYU friend this he simply replied, “Oh, wow, that sucks.”

Did you know you were lied to when you were told you get into basketball games for free? Did you know this fee was only $49.25 in 2005? That’s an increase of over 150 percent in half a decade.

If we continue on this trend, you’ll pay nearly $200 for your “free” athletic events in 2017. And when I say you, I mean all of you. Every single student at USU pays to go to athletic events, regardless of whether they go to them or not.

This is stupid. Socialistic, even. The university is pooling together our student fees and allocating them as they see fit. This is essentially no different from socialism — forcing others to pay for a service they may or may not use.

Here is a partial list of the things paid for by student fees: Athletics, Aggie Shuttle, health services, computer labs, Campus Recreation, and the music and theatre departments.

If you use all these services, then more power to you. Personally, I walk to class, I have my own computer, and although I’d like to, I don’t have time for theatrical performances. Why should I be forced to pay for someone else’s ticket to “Thriller”? Why should someone else be forced to pay for my basketball games?

I’m not advocating eliminating student fees altogether, because they’re necessary to an extent. However, I think that in everyday life, if you’d like to buy a cheeseburger, you’re going to pay for your own dang burger.

Brayden Smith