Although the 2011–12 Student Fee Committee budget has been submitted to President Wim Wiewel, ASPSU will continue to examine funding of the Athletics Department in the long term.
Ad-hoc Athletics committee halted
Although the 2011–12 Student Fee Committee budget has been submitted to President Wim Wiewel, ASPSU will continue to examine funding of the Athletics Department in the long term.
The Student Senate worked with the SFC before spring break to form a group that would investigate the increasing Athletics budget, but university administration—backed by Institutional Research Analyst David Burgess—recently disapproved of the Senate’s proposal, concluding that the goals of the new committee were the same as the mission of the Intercollegiate Athletics Board (IAB).
“[It’s] basically already the committee you recommended,” SFC member Marcus Mantik said.
Burgess chairs the IAB, which is composed of one student and four faculty members. Two spots remain open to student senators.
“The IAB doesn’t have an agenda,” Burgess said. “We just have a charge to monitor Athletics. We would love it if we had more student representatives. Every year it’s a struggle to get students involved.”
However, student senators feel that a committee of their own creation is still necessary.
“The board isn’t a student committee,” Student Senator Patricia Binder said. “It’s not a fair committee.”
Other senators agreed with her.
“There’s a difference between sitting on [the Athletics Board] committee and creating our own,” Student Senator Rowan Griffith said. “Part of our job is to speak on behalf of students. I think we need to take a strong stance.”
Student Senator Cindy Reyes linked the disapproval of the committee with what she described as the tendency of the administration to claim authority over the uses of the student fee.
“All of this demonstrates that we have no control over the student fee,” she said.
Student Senator Adam Rahmlow agreed.
“We need some student oversight,” he said. “We created that committee to investigate, reevaluate and ask questions.”
Referring to the increased funding of the Athletics Department this year, Rahmlow said that “the board in place didn’t do a good job capping that raise.”
The next step might be lobbying the Faculty Senate, some ASPSU senators suggested. The Faculty Senate could then decide to create a new committee. However, formal plans have yet to be generated.
“I’m holding off on any hard and fast ideas until after next week’s [Student Senate] meeting,” said Student Senator Nick Rowe.
The Student Senate will continue to discuss oversight of Athletics at its next meeting on Tuesday, April 5. ?
