$65
athletic fee stirs passions at USU
By Melissa Mortenson
May 6, 2009 | Utah State University students voted
in high numbers, to pay an extra $65 a semester to help
support the Aggie Athletics Program.
With students already frustrated by the rising cost
of tuition, talk of the possibility of a new athletic
fee spread across campus quickly. Students began to
question how the university would use the money collected
from the fee.
All of Utah State Universities sports are in a financial
crisis due to the school not budgeting enough money
for the transition to the Western Athletic Conference
four years ago. Scott Barnes, Utah State Universities
director of athletics, took time to inform student athletic
groups that the fee would be used to bring the athletics
department out of it's annual $2.3 million deficit,
and asked athletes, if in support of the fee, to tell
their friends to vote yes.
Linda Zimmerman, coach of the USU Spirit Squad, said,
"With the current economic situation as is, we
were surprised to hear that the vote had passed. We
knew it would be close, and wanted to do everything
we could to help."
That is exactly what the Spirit Squad and other athletic
teams did. When the voting opened up, athletic groups
set up tables with laptops in the Taggart Student Center
and Hyper to get people to vote. Ryan Tall a, sophomore
at USU came up with the idea, and headed the tables
throughout the week of voting.
"I love Aggie athletics," he said, "especially
basketball, when I heard that the department was in
financial trouble, I wanted to do all I could to help
them out. I knew that most students would feel the way
I did when they understood what the fee was going to
be used for."
Other students disagreed.
"I don't want pay an extra $65 a semester just
so the football team can parade around in pretty new
uniforms to match their pretty new field," said
Mark Buccumbusso, a senior at USU, "I'm already
paying over $2,000 dollars for tuition, and I don't
even go to the games."
Rumors that the fee would be used to buy new football
uniforms, and equipment spread across campus in hopes
to not get the fee to pass. Athletes at the tables tried
to correct these arguments, and inform them of the real
intensions of the fee. In an interview with KSL, Tiffany
Evans, director of the student involvement and leadership
center said she believes students recognize the importance
of this vote.
A Facebook group titled "Say NO to an athletic
fee at USU," founded by Tyler Riggs, was also created
to stimulate negative votes for the fee. The group had
more than 214 supporters by the time voting concluded.
Scott Barnes wanted students to know that he is not
asking them to get the athletics department out of debt
on their own. Barnes has a plan to boost self-generated
revenue. His staff is working on a new marketing plan
for selling season tickets, he has also hired more sales
workers. The Big Blue Scholarship Fund is also expanding
by having about 85 volunteers contact 6,000 people in
comparison to 1,000 or 1,500 in previous years.
Despite all of the negative publicity, the fee passed
with 2,415 votes (53 percent) in favor, and 2,159 votes
(47 percent) against the new fee. More students voted
on the fee than on this years general election. Besides
helping the athletics program get out of debt, this
fee will also allow Aggie basketball fans to keep their
student section, that would have been taken away and
used to sell to the general public had the fee not passed.
The fee will be added in the upcoming fall semester
of 2009.
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