Twenty-five dollars will put a whole new face on campus community. At least that’s what the Associated Student Government seeks to accomplish with a bill passed during their last meeting of Fall Quarter that encourages Northwestern to charge the annual fee to all undergraduates in exchange for free admission to athletic events.
ASG has submitted the bill to administrators and presented the plan to members of the Board of Trustees. If adopted, the measure would tack $25 onto tuition annually in the same manner as the $120 NUTV and $120 Student Activities Fee.
“This is a huge deal,” said ASG Student Services Vice President Tamara Kagel, who called this the biggest initiative ASG has taken since senators successfully pushed for a $21 increase to the annual SAF in Winter Quarter 2002.
Senators posed little opposition to the bill, as just a couple of the 40 or so members voted “nay” to the proposal. Many, however, posed questions — some of which authors and supporters have yet to answer.
Sorority Sen. Sara Whitaker, the bill’s lead author, explained that the $25 amount was chosen because it was enough so the athletic department wouldn’t lose money on the deal and the fee would only have to be adjusted every five or 10 years. WildCARD use would likely replace tickets, but if attendance at sporting events skyrocketed, it was suggested that they could look toward a lottery or other form of distribution.
The only sports for which NU charges home-game admission are football and men’s basketball. Statistics Whitaker provided show the average revenue the school has received per student over the past six years is $19.40.
Senators, both at the 6 p.m. meeting and during a special hearing held about the bill just before Senate, expressed concerns that the hasty passage didn’t allow proper time for student to provide feedback about the bill’s possible impact.
“I can see reasons students wouldn’t want this to happen,” Rainbow Alliance Sen. John Hughes said during the hearing.
Hughes, a Weinberg junior and former Daily Forum editor who also serves as student board member of the Students Publishing Co., which oversees The Daily, criticized the group’s failure to “gain quantitative data” through gauging student opinion using a online referendum.
Whitaker acknowledged to the eight members who attended the hearing, “I really wish Senate would have had more time to look over this.”
But, she said, senators had a week and a half to talk with constituents and gain feedback before the vote. And those who did, she said, received largely positive comments.
Whitaker added that postponing the decision for a student referendum would cause the project to be delayed for an entire year, as university budgets are finalized in December or January. Moreover, she said, she worried that a student referendum would not have explained to students the cost-benefit analysis of the proposal.
“I don’t think a poll could tell people about the community side of this,” Whitaker said. “Or the disadvantages.”
Others at the hearing asked about the possibility of making the fee optional. “It’d be unmanageable,” said Whitaker, adding that there would need to be a “sophisticated system at every event.”
She added that it is possible in extreme financial cases for students to waive this fee.
The $25 charge could produce $30,000 to $50,000 in extra revenue each year. Leaders said the athletic department doesn’t profit much from athletics now, so more revenue would be used to pay for operations as well as maintenance to facilities — including Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center, Blomquist Recreation Center and Patten Gym. Students make about 445,000 visits to the three facilities every year.
Still, Hughes said of the proposed fee at the hearing, “That’s not chump change.” He guessed that two-thirds to three-fourths of students don’t spend the $25 on sporting events under status quo.
But the authors held that the unity they hoped to foster from this initiative makes up for the cost — citing other Big Ten communities, as well as other schools nationwide, that have similar programs.
Whitaker and Kagel both said safety issues and incidents of bias have caused students to unite recently, but those were not the only reasons students should want to come together.
“Sports is just one way we can go about that,” Whitaker said at the hearing.
