ASWSU to consider mandatory sports pass referendum
DES MARKS | Daily Evergreen File
WSU Athletics will present a budget plan to address the deficit facing the department in front of the WSU Board of Regents June 7-8.
February 7, 2018
ASWSU will consider putting a referendum on the ballot to consolidate athletic fees by requiring students to buy a $265 annual sports pass.
The referendum would remove the current Service and Activities fees that currently go to athletics, which amounted to about $750,000 this school year, according to the document.
Instead, sports passes would be become a mandatory fee that would be included in tuition and fee estimates. According to the bill text, 11,212 students currently have sports passes which cost $239 a student. If the referendum makes it on the ballot and students support it, sports passes will cost $265 a year and every undergraduate student will be required to purchase one.
All together, revenue generated from sports pass would increase from $2,679,668 to to $4,303,600.
ASWSU President Jordan Frost said athletics previously considered a $50 fee to cover operating costs, which he did not support. He instead proposed taking away the S&A fees already collected by athletics and changing the way sports passes worked.
He said students often don’t buy sports passes because they can’t afford it or don’t want them. The mandatory sports pass would be included in the financial aid estimate and package, so therefore more affordable for low income students.
He said he couldn’t support a mandatory fee that wasn’t going to student programs, and the sports pass fee would pay for student employees and services students use.
He said he sees the athletics fee as similar to other mandatory fees, like the UREC and the CUB.
“We all collectively subsidize these services that maybe not benefit us directly,” Frost said. “But I’m happy to pay for that service because I see the value that other students around me get. Similar to this athletics fee. I’m happy to pay for other students jobs — heck, you all pay for mine.”
ASWSU will discuss the issue at their regular meeting at 5:30 in CUB 204.
This story is being updated.
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