In a surprise move, the committee charged with purchasing student tickets for sports games announced Wednesday night that it is willing to cut football tickets by 700 per game and to not purchase tickets for games before school starts.
The Athletic Department Finance Committee plans to adhere to a 3 percent budget increase for next year despite having been awarded a 7 percent increase by the Student Senate.
The decision will require the ADFC to purchase fewer student tickets for next year’s football games, a change inspired by low turnout at the final games of this season.
ADFC Chairman Kyle McKenzie noted the discrepancy between the 5,700 students tickets distributed for the Arizona State game and the 3,000 tickets collected at the gate as a reason for the change.
“That is a huge waste of money,” McKenzie said.
The ADFC was originally awarded a 7 percent increase because the Pacific-10 Conference announced an additional home game next year, and the ADFC anticipated purchasing the same number of tickets to games as it did this year. Even with the maximum increase of 7 percent, the committee would still have been short of the amount needed to purchase the full number of student tickets.
“I’m pretty sure students are going to be mad at us,” McKenzie said.
Senators said they will expect the ADFC to follow the 3 percent benchmark despite the Senate’s inability to rescind its previous vote and make the change official.
ADFC members have also discussed seeking corporate sponsorship of student tickets for a game and disbanding the ADFC altogether, allowing students to purchase their own tickets to football and men’s basketball games.
PFC budget debate
Concerned students from various groups, inspired by the Senate’s decision to pass an increase of only 2.5 percent, attended the meeting to hear senators discuss increases for the major programs funded using student fees. The increase is smaller than in previous years.
The Programs Finance Committee is responsible for deciding the budgets of many ASUO groups, including the Career Center and student clubs.
The ASUO Executive has said the 2.5 percent increase will be detrimental to departments and contracts funded with student fees, saying it may be impossible to meet.
ASUO President Jared Axelrod said it was good to see the amount of programs interested in the allocation of student fees but that the Senate was not protecting the interests of students.
“Students will see these cuts and will be more mad that they will have to pay to rent a towel and instead the incidental fee is $205,” Axelrod said, referring to a letter distributed to senators earlier this week.
The letter included a memo from the Student Recreation Center detailing possible consequences of underfunding the facility, including charging for towel services or discontinuing them altogether.
The incidental fee is currently $202 per student each term. It rose $13 last year as a result of increases approved by the Senate.
ASUO Finance Coordinator Madeline Wigen said the increase would only be enough to fund increases to the Lane Transit District contract and the Rec Center.
“The executive is working for their interests and not the interests of the Senate or the individual students,” said former Sen. Dallas Brown. “This is politics. There are reasons the executive wants more money spent on programs.”
Brown called the letter issued by the Executive a “scare tactic.” He said programs such as the Rec Center will grow if the PFC decides to allocate money for expansion.
Sen. Jennifer Lleras said the Senate should try to reform the process by which money is distributed before attempting to make cuts.
Axelrod said if the Senate is interested in changing the PFC process, it should wait until the committee has finished doing its job.
“It’s tough to fix a machine while it’s on, you don’t fix a dryer while it’s plugged in,” he said.
Sen. Jacob Daniels said although he won’t be paying fees next year, it was irresponsible for the Senate to go back on its decisions.
“If I can do anything, I’m going to stop that fee growth, even if it’s only a tiny bit,” he said.
Sen. Jacqueline Justice said the turnout was a bit premature, and that concerned groups may not understand what the benchmark means, but other Senators countered that they expected the committee to stick to the guidelines.
“We didn’t just pass some flowery suggestion. No, this is a real threat,” Sen. Nate Gully said.
McKenzie said the PFC will be able to find room to maintain current services by cutting other programs.
“We already have made this 2.5 increase to PFC and look at what it’s done already. It’s pushed things to a higher priority,” McKenzie said. “Why can’t we say this is what you’re getting, deal with it?”
In other business
– The Senate decided not to adopt a bill supporting the use of cage-free eggs by all University food services because the cost would be too great. Because eggs purchased by the University are primarily sold in residence halls, switching to cage-free eggs would raise yearly prices for residence hall students by about $13, said Tom Driscoll, University Housing Food Services director.
– Sen. Drew Pinson resigned his seat because he will study abroad next term.
– The Senate authorized spending of $4,460 from the surplus account for the Black Student Union to bring former Black Panther Angela Davis to campus for Black History Month.
– Shon Bogar, a law student, was appointed to the ASUO Constitution Court.
– The Senate also decided not to ask the EMU for its own office space even though all 18 senators work in the ASUO office and share a computer.
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