The proud owners of space in the Blue Zone pay good money for their seats at football games. And if the athletic department has its way, students could be, too. The athletic department recently submitted a request to increase the athletic fee to $374.50, a $100 increase from the current $274.50. The increase is unwarranted. Student representatives must move to soften the blow of this fee increase.
The proposed fee represents a 36.4 percent increase. In the fee request form, the athletic department states that the increase will “meet scholarship requirements” and “increase funding for the Olympic sport programs” in light of increased tuition costs and the elimination of the tuition waiver for out-of-state athletes.
These are valid concerns, but they do not justify such a massive fee increase. Fee increases are recurring, which means that a $100 increase is actually a $400 increase in the cost of an undergraduate degree from UNC.
The department already collects about $7 million directly from the athletics fee, making it the second largest recipient of student fees on campus. And the athletic fee has been increased at a rate exceeding the Higher Education Price Index for three of the last four years.
The amount is also suspect. Student fees should be used as specific charges to fulfill specific needs. It’s hard to believe that the athletic department needed exactly $100 from every student on campus to fill a budget gap. Instead, the excruciatingly round number feels like a haphazard grab at more money from students.
The department’s request also argues that UNC’s athletic fee is lowest among the UNC-system public schools, and should therefore be increased. But UNC’s fee is also the fourth highest among its Atlantic Coast Conference competitors, so the system schools argument doesn’t hold much weight.
The athletic department is facing financial difficulties, and an increase in the athletic fee may be appropriate at some point.
But the athletic department must realize that it would recklessly tax real students.
