Trustees renew athletic fee, raise tuition

The board of trustees renewed the $30 athletics fee for the 2005-2006 school year Friday against recommendations by IUSA's Committee for Fee Review and a resolution by the Bloomington Faculty Council. The fee, passed with a 6-2 vote, included a last-second compromise suggested by IUSA President Alex Shortle. \nThe compromise requires the athletics department to submit a plan showing its need and plans for the funds before money collected in the spring semester is released. If no plan is submitted, the money from the fee will go to a kindergarten through 12th grade minority outreach program. \n"This compromise is a last resort option," Shortle said. "It needs to go through the process, so students can have their say."\nThe passage of the fee marked the first time the president has not backed the CFR since the process began, Shortle said. The CFR is a committee of seven students picked from a pool of applicants that spend about 60 hours reviewing the merits of each fee, said former IUSA President Tyson Chastain. \nShortle also said that the cost was not the only issue; it was students having a voice in the fees they pay.\n"Are you prepared to do this for every fee?" Shortle asked, referring to the long debate over both the athletics and transportation fees. "Because if you vote yes, you will throw out the entire process."\nIU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan explained challenges the department was facing, as well as his strategy to make it fiscally healthy again.\n"(The athletics department) has a strategy," Greenspan said. "But until we assemble the right people in the same room, I can't say we have a plan."\nGreenspan revealed possible actions to help the department's finances including closing the money-losing IU golf course, exploring advertising in Assembly Hall, aggressively marketing the football team and improving business efficiencies. \nHe also presented the benefits the department brings to the campus such as scholarship money for athletes, licensing money for the University and the chance for student-athletes to excel in Olympic sports.\nMeanwhile, Bloomington Faculty Council President David Daleke made the faculty's support for the CFR's recommendation clear.\n"The students have had their say and I think we should respect that," Daleke said. \nHe said a BFC petition, circulated 48 hours before the meeting, was signed by 450 members of the faculty -- the biggest show of support he has seen for a petition.\nDaleke added the faculty was not showing opposition to the athletics department, but rather they were showing support for student opinions and the process itself.\nTrustee Patrick Shoulders, who cast one of the two votes against the proposal, said he was unhappy with the fee as well as the compromise.\n"The compromise should have gone through the whole the process," Shoulders said. "There has been one year to plan for this. (The proposal) should not have been changed in the middle of this meeting to vote on it."\nTrustee Steve Ferguson, who voted for the fee, said he felt the need to support it because he saw no other option for the athletics department.\nAbout 15 students attended the entire meeting to protest the fee, holding up signs with slogans such as "My money is not for your games."\n"It's like if I asked you for $30 to pay off my own debt," said senior Andrew Waple. "This fee provides no service to students. It's an example of the University throwing its weight around."\nGreenspan said the vote, despite being in the athletics department's favor, was not a cause for celebration.\n"These are hard times," Greenspan said, referring to the tight IU budget. "I don't consider this a victory. A victory is when we have a room with great academic, character-building success"