From potential decreases in the number of free student tickets for home football games next year to spikes in the cost of Club Sports teams using the University’s motor pool, student government-funded programs are headed for a financial crunch.
Student leaders from the Athletic Department Finance Committee, which negotiates student tickets with the Athletics Department, and the EMU Board, which oversees EMU programs such as the Craft Center, examined ways to address pending budget problems at meetings Wednesday.
ADFC
The addition of a game to next year’s football roster will force the ADFC to make some tough decisions going into negotiations with the Athletics Department.
Even with a 7 percent budget increase – the maximum allowed increase next year and an amount ADFC members predict to be unlikely – the committee will not have enough funds to purchase the same number of tickets for each game as it did this year.
The estimated cost to the ADFC for one additional game is between $208,000 and $225,000 for 5,700 tickets. The committee asked for a 7 percent benchmark last year and received only a 3.48 percent increase.
The committee expressed concerns about reducing the number of student seats because seats were just cut last year.
“There might be mutiny” if the committee takes away any more tickets, ADFC Chairman Kyle McKenzie said .
Sen. Drew Pinson discussed ways the committee could prevent no-shows at games, citing low student attendance at the PSU game.
More than 1,000 students received tickets but did not show up.
“This is cutting our legs off in negotiations,” Pinson said.
The ADFC is considering a way to make student tickets electronically loaded into student ID cards, which would be scanned at the gates of Autzen Stadium.
The system would eliminate paper tickets, which cost $1 each to print.
This would provide the ADFC a way to prevent students from selling tickets, to account for those students who reserved tickets and didn’t use them, and make it possible to keep no-shows from attending the next game.
The committee also discussed how to address students selling their free tickets online, which is “totally illegal,” McKenzie said.
The ADFC has seen tickets for sale on craigslist.com and StubHub.com, he said.
As of Wednesday night, four craigslist ads offered student tickets ranging in price from $25 to $40.
Members Wednesday discussed comparing the number of tickets distributed to the number of students who show up at games.
EMU
Even with the maximum budget increase allowed, the EMU will not be able to avoid budget cuts next year, EMU Board members said Wednesday.
The EMU, which encompasses programs such as the Club Sports and the Craft Center, would need an 11.42 percent increase to maintain current services for the 2007-08 school year, but student government rules prohibit it from asking for more than 7 percent.
“The current service level is not sustainable,” EMU Business Manager Jean Sun informed the EMU Budget Committee at a Wednesday meeting.
Committee members agreed on a 5.5 percent, or $209,319, benchmark, having previously agreed to ask for less than a 6-percent increase.
Under the current model, less than 9 percent of the EMU’s total $7.8 million budget comes from the University’s general fund. The EMU generates about 41 percent of its budget and the remainder comes from the student incidental fee – currently about $200 a term per student.
The budget problems stem from increases in student wages and the cost of using the University’s motor pool.
Student wages, which as a result of a 30 cent increase in minimum wage and decreased amounts of work study dollars available, would require 19.1 percent more money to stay level next year.
The total personnel increase is estimated at $304,791, while a 7 percent increase in the EMU’s budget would only total $266,407.
Compounding the problem, the cost of renting a 12-person van from the University’s fleet has jumped from $26 per van, per day to $65 per van, per day.
Club Sports teams often rent the vans to transport players to games.
Frustrated, committee members discussed setting a low benchmark, or requested increase, to send a message to the University that the EMU needs more money.
“The EMU benefits the entire University. I don’t understand why the University has left us with less than 10 percent funding,” said Senate President Sara Hamilton. “We can go lower than 6 percent.”
Sen. Jennifer Lleras agreed.
“It they are really, really adamant about having a functioning EMU, they’ll find a way to fund it,” Lleras said.
But EMU Board Chairwoman Chess Patricolo said she opposed using the benchmark as a means to draw attention to the EMU’s woes.
“I don’t think this is the way to go about doing this,” Patricolo said. “We can make a statement in other ways.”
Budget Committee Chairwoman Lillian Vaughn cautioned members to consider other ways the EMU could look for more funding.
“This number is not necessarily a tool for getting attention,” Vaughn said.
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