By Editorial
For a Dinos Athletics fee increase The $6.50 increase in the Dinos athletics levy leaves students with one less cup of coffee per month. So why all the hubbub?
Maybe it’s because they didn’t get to valiantly cast their greedy ballot. Maybe students are tired of being sucked dry. Or they see little need for the program at all.
All these reasons are bunk.
Of course the increase would be voted down in a student referendum. Take any proposed hike to a referendum and nine times out of ten it will lose. People rarely vote to have less money.
Sure, the Campus Food Bank is a worthier cause than the volleyball team, but there is no shortage of money for either. Calgary students live in one of the richest cities in Canada. Most students wont notice the increase–the levy is still one of the country’s lowest.
This levy directly benefits over 200 students athletes. These students sacrifice so much with little to no compensation in the way of scholarships or student body interest.
There is a school of thought that would get rid of the Dinos altogether. The university should be a place of pure academia, some say. Excuse us if we can’t remember when the U of C became Harvard-North (Harvard, by the way, has quite a spirited football rivalry with Yale).
No matter how you argue it, money makes a better program. Better programs turn into money makers. The University of Saskatchewan is built on alumni money that flows from Huskies football.
Calgary, being neither Harvard or U of S has neither the reputation for academics or athletics either university has. This, coupled with our relatively young age, leaves alumni funding at a drip.
Do Dinos Athletics add anything to a students’ academic program? Probably not. But with better programs, better players and better promotion, it may one day be one of the those intangibles so important to a university career incalculable in dollar values.
Opposed to a Dinos fee increase
Something is rotten in Dinos Athletics.
Put aside for a moment the difficulty of quantifying the worth of Dinos Athletics. Too many factors are involved to say one way or another how much our sports teams are worth to us. Instead, stand against the proposed $6.50 increase because, frankly, the way it went through the Dinos Athletic Advisory Council stunk.
Last Thursday night, the DAAC voted to recommend a two-year $6.50 per year increase in the $25 athletics levy students pay.
Of the 13 members of the committee, the majority have a specific interest in athletics, including two coaches and four athletes. This sets up a clear conflict of interest when voting on matters like a levy increase. The council is stacked in favour of athletics, which means it is only accountable to itself. Even if non-Dinos council members voted against the increase, as they did in this case, there is no chance to defeat the recommendation. The average student, who voted against a fee increase in last year’s Students’ Union general election by a ratio of 2-1, doesn’t get true representation.
This method of squeezing more money out of students is dirty and underhanded. It’s one thing to present an argument and ask for more money, but in this case, it doesn’t feel like students were asked at all.