Trustees voting on tuition today

A mandatory $30 athletics fee, a 4 percent tuition hike and approval of the College Readership Program top the agenda for today's IU board of trustees meeting at IU-Southeast in New Albany, Ind.\nThe board will decide whether or not to implement the fee Athletics Director Terry Clapacs requested to pay off the athletic department's $2 million deficit. Though a 2002 internal audit blames ineffective financial management, Clapacs attributes the debt to poor football performance and tenured former athletic department employees.\nStudent leaders denounced the bill in force on the basis that it does not benefit the student body in any way. A letter sent by the Dean's Advisory Board Tuesday to IU President Adam Herbert attacked the bill on behalf of current and future student leaders. And last night, the Union Board voted to voice its opposition to the bill.\n"Union Board is against (the fee) because we feel it is an administrative shakedown," said Hashim Hathaway, films director for Union Board. "Nothing that this fee offers fixes any current problems of the athletic department. I don't think that students have been given a lot of straight talk by the administration."\nIn a previous Indiana Daily Student article, Clapacs said the fee will prevent a loss of athletic scholarships and student seating at athletic events.\nThe trustees will also decide whether to raise tuition for current in-state students by 4 percent.\nThe figure is reminiscent of last year's 4 percent hike, though tuition for new students rose by 23 percent for in-state and 10 percent for out-of-state students in 2003.\n"We know that no one likes to see tuition increase and that the board of trustees and the administration are reluctant to increase tuition," said board of trustees President Fred Eichhorn in a previous IDS article, "but at times, it's necessary."\nAlso up for approval is the IU Student Association-sponsored college readership program, which would impose a $2 fee to provide students with copies of USA Today, The New York Times and The Chicago Tribune. \nDean of Students Richard McKaig and Student Body Vice President Grant McFann appointed students, staff and administrators to examine arguments from all sides of the issue. The committee will make its recommendation to the trustees today.\nAt a committee meeting March 10, representatives from each of the national papers argued the program will enhance students' knowledge of world events, while representatives from the IDS feared approval would create an uneven economic playing field for the nonprofit student paper.\nIU tuition regulations will allow for a $30 increase in fees next year, so if trustees pass the mandatory athletics fee, the motion would kill the readership program by default.\n-- Contact senior writer Mike McElroy at mmcelroy@indiana.edu.