Benefits for more than athletes – Student fee proposal doesn”t correct criticism, but it”s a start

When someone isn”t involved in something or does not benefit from it, it is easy to criticize.

Students, for example, were quick to criticize where their money for student fees goes.

ASUI conducted a survey on student fees and received more than 800 responses, according to ASUI President Max Cowan. He said the most common concerns were the portion of funds dedicated to athletics and accountability with fee money.

Their criticisms are justified.

Intercollegiate Athletics receives the largest portion of the Dedicated Student Activity Fee, coming in at $127.96 for the 2015-2016 school year. Sixteen athletic programs and about 350 students benefit from these funds, according to the ASUI student fee page.

As a result of the criticism, University of Idaho President Chuck Staben recently approved a reallocation of the funds – $12.42 of the Dedicated Student Activity Fee that goes to Intercollegiate Athletics will now go to Academic Support and Access Programs for athletes. The Dedicated Activity Student Fee Committee recommended the proposal.

While the money is now going to a different place, this is not a shift in who benefits from the $12.42. The money will still be used for academic success for Vandal athletes. The only change is that Academic Support Services will manage the money instead of the Athletics Department”s general fund.

This increases transparency and accountability, because the funds are earmarked for athletes” academic support, but it does not alleviate the second concern – the amount of fees designated for athletics.

The academic success of athletes is crucial. The goal of all students should be to gain an education in preparation for life after college. Everyone needs to keep this goal in mind.

Having the funds reserved for academic support is a step in the right direction, but it has not gone far enough.

The reallocated fees should go to the academic support for all students, not student athletes alone. After all, athletes are students first and could benefit from the same academic support, which they already have access to, as other students.

Students have a right to be concerned with and invested in how student fees are spent, because for many, they are coming out of their pockets.

Students should continue to voice their opinions on how their money is spent. Eight hundred voices responded to ASUI, but that is only roughly 7 percent of UI”s student population.

Alongside the reallocation, UI also presented a 4.5 percent increase in tuition for resident undergraduate students for the 2016-2017 school year.

The amount may seem like a lot, and with the rising cost of tuition, no one wants to pay more. But, the funds are necessary to keep offering the programs UI does and pay faculty and staff appropriately.

Those 800 voices were great, but students need to continue to voice their opinions. It”s only through speaking out that the university will know what matters to its students and what will best help them succeed.

– KH

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