Students across the country are voting down fee increases to help pay for athletics programs.
Universities in New Orleans and California are looking at private sponsorship or cutting programs, according to The New York Times. At Division I universities, athletic fees can range from $30 to $1,000 a year.
The United States Student Association said students have been voting down various fees this year.
“We’re definitely seeing in recent times students refusing to pay a lot of these fees,” Bill Shiebler, national field director for the association, told the Times. “There is a spectrum of reasons, ranging from ‘I think it costs too much to go to school here’ to ‘I don’t want to support any new fees’ to ‘I just don’t want to have my dollars go to athletics because I don’t use it.’ ”
Ohio University students recently voted no on a technology fee that would pay for half of a $40 million Student Information System and network upgrade. The state’s top education official approved the fee, however, and students will begin paying between $22 and $25 a quarter beginning Fall Quarter.
OU students also support athletic programs through their student fees. The quarterly general fee is $513 per student. Athletics receives 23 cents from every dollar for operations and 14 cents from every dollar for scholarships.
OU faculty have criticized Athletics for being allowed to operate in a deficit while other departments have to return a balanced budget.
Top OU officials originally handed Athletics a $635,539 budget reduction target for next year as part of a universitywide effort to meet a $15-million deficit, but later increases that to about $1 million.
-Emily Grannis
