Administrators clarified in a presentation to the Board of Regents on Thursday that a student fee included in the Athletics deficit reduction plan would apply only to undergraduates, totaling about $100 per student per year, rather than the previously reported $85 per student per year.

Chief University Budget Officer Joan King said the fee would go through the usual referendum process, which means students would vote on it in the spring elections. The majority of voters would need to approve the fee for it to pass.

Some regents worried about the fact that incoming students would be left with a fee, which would amount to $1.7 million per year beginning in 2018, that they did not have a say in, and that not many students would participate in the referendum.

“Students don’t generally turn out to vote,” King said.

She said the main difficulty would be making students aware of the referendum and explaining to them that not voting is essentially equal to voting in favor of the fee.

King said the fee would fund aspects of Athletics which students benefit from. She said this includes custodial support in student-used athletic facilities, and, in the future, some coverage of PAC-12 dues and partial compensation for revenue lost as a result of the PAC-12 Network.

She said it would also fund coverage of the president’s box in Martin Stadium, which is used for donor cultivation, because the entire university benefits from these donations.

Though the plan, if successful, would leave Athletics with a surplus by 2020, King said it is difficult to project a budget far into the future and that it would be hard to say when the deficit would be paid off.

“2021 is already over the horizon,” she said. “I would not even speculate at this point in time on what year it might be.”

WSU President Kirk Schulz, said the deficit did not develop over a single year and will not be fixed in that amount of time.

“We’d all love for a miracle to occur and we don’t have to do anything,” Schulz said, “but the fact of the matter is it’s gonna take some time.”

Schulz said that he and Athletic Director Bill Moos have met several times to discuss the deficit and he believes they have been realistic in their solutions.

Schulz said though there will be some expense reductions in Athletics, it is also important that the university maintain its level of competitiveness in the PAC-12.

“We could go hack the budget, cut sports, do all that kinda stuff, make the two things meet,” he said. “I think at the end of the day people would say, ‘Well, you’ve made it balance fiscally but it’s really not representing the university well.’”

The reductions include leaving certain positions unfilled and unspecified “overall belt tightening,” as well as the permanent cancellation of a Seattle football game.

King said the primary cause of the Athletics deficit is a $9 million per year facility debt. She said investments in several sports have also caused internally generated expenses, while costs associated with NCAA and PAC-12 rules regarding students athletes have resulted in external expenses.

Other revenue sources included in the plan are doubled donations from the Cougar Athletic Fund by 2019, totaling $2 million in that year; beer sales in Martin Stadium, though the Liquour and Cannabis Board has yet to approve this; and increased single-game and season ticket sales for football and men’s basketball.

“It is ambitious in some areas,” Moos said, “but I don’t think it’s unachievable.”