Fee
increases affect sports at The Beach too
By Kristen Wooley
On-line Forty-Niner
Next
Wednesday the California State University
system Chancellor, Charles Reed, will hold
a meeting at which our student fees will
rise by 25 percent.
Many students may remember the quaint notice
we received this past December informing
us that our tuition was going up 10 percent
and we owed $72 retroactively on fees we
already paid.
So, with the 25 percent increase that balances
out to approximately $285 and the previous
10 percent we already paid student fees
have risen 35 percent and roughly $400 in
the last six months.
What does this have to do with sports at
The Beach? More than students want to know.
But it is our right to know. It is our right
to know where every single dollar we pay
in student fees goes. Whether it goes to
put fresh flowers on President Robert Maxson’s
desk every morning or to pay for new cleats
for the Dirtbags.
Students paid a fee increase for the Beach
Pride Referendum a few years ago and saw
a pittance of the money from it. Over 90
percent of the money from Beach Pride goes
straight to athletic programs and athletic
scholarships.
Now because of the California budget crisis
the sports programs have sequestered another
$50,000 in funding from the Beach Pride
Referendum program fund.
That money, much like the $400 more the
CSU system wants each semester, is not theirs
to take. Our sports programs can make due
with what they have. Who cares if Abe Alvarez
pitches in the same cleats he wore two weeks
ago? Who cares if Cassie Azevedo, Angelica
Garcia and Roberta Stewart wear the same
swimsuit that got wet the day before yesterday?
The students who pay for it do.
The athletic administration will argue that
the money will be used for facility repair
and scholarships. But tell me this, how
much good will another $50,000 that is being
stolen from students do for our athletic
programs.
Think of it this way, there are about 25
players on the men’s baseball team and another
25 players on the women’s softball team.
Now take those fifty athletes and give them
$1,000 each for uniforms, equipment, travel
and such. Right there the $50,000 is gone.
But what about golf, soccer, water polo,
tennis, track, basketball, etc.
Yes, the athletic administration will disperse
the money equally and use it in the best
possible way. My point is this: they are
ignoring, and not spending money to attract,
the one thing college sports needs the most:
The Students.
I do not mind paying more money to have
better sports programs. I do not mind giving
money that goes to get better scholarship
athletes to attend this school. What I do
mind is when the fees are masqueraded as
something else.
Call it the “More Money for Sports Referendum,”
the “We Will Score with Your Dollar Fund,”
but do not insult every student on this
campus by calling it the Beach Pride Referendum.
Beach Pride to me is not about getting better
equipment for athletes or making their playing
facilities look really nice, it is about
getting students involved in their teams
through promotion and gimmicks and that
takes money that is currently going to the
wrong places.
The Beach Pride Center does not have enough
to do the necessary things to get students
actively involved in this university’s sporting
events. One rally a semester just does not
cut it.
Free shirts have to be made and given away
at will. Rally Towels have to be printed
in mass quantities and dispersed liberally
amongst the student population. Huge foam
49er pick axes have to be dropped from the
sky to thousands of needy 49ers.
Winning programs attract fans, and we have
them in spades here at Long Beach State,
but they also always need a little promotional
help. Give the money back to the Beach Pride
Center. Give the money back to the students.
It has been promised to them.
Taking money from a fund that is supposed
to benefit students is no better than unexpectedly
and exorbitantly raising student fees that
pay for it in the first place.
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