IU drops student entrance fee for 5 sports

The IU athletics department will not charge students admission to certain home sporting events, though last fall IU trustees approved a measure that said it would.\nThe policy reversal affects regular season home contests for men's and women's soccer, volleyball and wrestling, which would have cost students $5 for admission. Previously, those sports were free with a student ID.\nAlso, Pete Rhoda, IU director of athletic media relations, said admission to women's basketball games will be free to students, though they were charged admission most games last year.\n"We think it's great news," said Andrew Lauck, IU Student Association vice president. "It's great news for us, and it's great news for the students."\nIUSA and members of the athletics department held several meetings in the past six months and came to an agreement to eliminate some admission costs this summer.\n"We were concerned with the ability to solicit student involvement in athletics," Lauck said. "If price goes up, attendance obviously would go down. That's something we didn't want the athletics department to deal with and something we didn't want students to deal with."\nOne of the teams that was affected -- the IU men's soccer team -- boasts one of the highest soccer attendance records in the country. In 2005, the team averaged 3,112 fans per match -- second only to the University of New Mexico for highest attendance average in the country and second highest average of any NCAA soccer program ever.\nRhoda said attending free sporting events is a benefit of going to IU.\n"There are so many great sports programs here," Rhoda said. "(Students are) such a great part of our football and basketball programs, men's and women's, and they're such a great part of our soccer atmosphere, volleyball, swimming and all our other sports."\nIn September 2005, IU Director of Athletics Rick Greenspan presented a budget to the IU trustees that included a series of changes in an effort to end the athletics department's eight-year deficit streak. The budget, approved in November, called for a balanced budget within two years.\nThough it eliminated a mandatory $30 athletics fee for students, the budget reduced the number of student seats at basketball games and increased those ticket prices from $11 to $15 per game -- measures that still stand.\nThe department's decision to continue free student admission was focused more on student involvement than finances, "which I think reflects the impact the students have on the department," Rhoda said. "The main emphasis is the value and the importance of having all the students at our sporting events." \nLauck said IUSA does not have to cover the cost difference. \nAfter the Sept. 16, 2005, trustees meeting where the plan was presented, IU President Adam Herbert told the Indiana Daily Student he was not sure how students would react to the new plan. \n"I'm surprised because this will make it harder to get tickets to students with lower incomes," Herbert said in September 2005.\nBefore the budget's approval, IUSA released a survey reporting there was little student support for the changes the department made.\nIUSA will continue its "pleasant and professional" meetings with the athletics department, Lauck said. \n"It's an ongoing process, but this was the first step," he said. "This was a great sign from the athletics department"