LETTERS: Arguments against proposed fee increase for Athletics
To the editor:
While I really enjoy rooting for the Aggies when it comes to sports, I have a hard time supporting the proposed fee increase. As I understand it, I already pay more than $100 per year in fees which go to athletics, and while I appreciate being able to get into the games, it is not worth an additional $65 per semester to me. Worse than that, what about the students who rarely if ever go to the games – what value would they receive in return for their $243 a year which athletics would get from them? The argument is that a strong athletics program enhances Utah State’s image and therefore your degree. Really? Are we losing students to Boise State and Hawaii, famous BCS busters? We’re WAC cross-country champs; how many USU grads got an extra look at their resume because of that?
The fair thing would be to eliminate the athletics fee entirely, and offer a student athletics ticket package in addition to individual event tickets. The hard core front row might be willing to pay $1,000/year for the package, and people like me might put up $5 to attend a game every now and then.
Frankly, this deficit comes at least partly from not being willing to live within our means. Maybe we can’t afford a D-I NCAA program. If that’s the case, I’m sorry, it is not worth gouging students or going into debt in order to make it work. Like it or not, we are a relatively smaller school; we are not BYU or Utah, and if we can’t afford the current athletics program on donations, revenue and reasonable student fees, we need to bow out and make peace with having a smaller program. Don’t get me wrong; I know we are a great school and we do great things. We have plenty for which to be proud – for starters, we send experiments into space; our College of Education is excellent; and we offer a great educational value.
I’ll be voting “no” on the fee increase this week.
David Vance
To the editor:
The Athletics Department has posted their reasoning for the fee increase on its Web site. As a student who is strongly opposed to the increase, I feel these claims warrant some attention.
The AD lists several financial benefits of a successful Division I athletics program. But if the AD is such a financial boon, why are we being asked to give up more of our money? If anything, our fees should be lower because of the revenue generated from athletics, not increased. If the AD is operating at a budget deficit, then that’s its problem, not students who are subsisting on ramen noodles and frozen burritos. The AD claims it needs the fee increase now to “sustain our successful programs and improve others.” Well, if the AD can’t support its own programs, I wouldn’t consider them to be successful. A merchant who sells goods at a lower price than what he paid for them is going to make a lot of sales, but he’s only running a successful business if he can make a profit. If the AD was really “successful,” championships and winning streaks notwithstanding, they wouldn’t be asking for money in the first place.
The AD suggests that since our peer institutions have higher student fees and budgets for athletics, then we should too. This argument is an example of the “bandwagon” fallacy, which holds that something must be true simply because many people believe or practice it. I didn’t come to USU because of the basketball team, I came because the costs were relatively low. This is the same reason many other students choose USU, especially nonresident and international students. Raising fees would deter these students, which could be especially harmful to the university financially, since nonresident and international students pay higher tuition. Low costs is one of USU’s great advantages, let’s keep it that way. As a retort to the “bandwagon” argument, I recommend the Athletic Department go jump off a bridge … and not because everyone else is doing it.
Stephen Worthington