A week ago Tuesday Minnesota State University, Mankato students went to the polls to elect a new student senate and vote on a proposed, non-binding, athletic referendum to increase student fees 75 cents per credit for three years to save four sports. Those sports were men's swimming, men's Diving, women's bowling, and women's tennis.
The referendum passed on a 1796 for and 1287 against vote.
Today, Minnesota State University, Mankato president Richard Davenport made up his own mind on the fate of those four sports. Cut three, save one. MSU will cut their men's swimming and diving, as well as their women's bowling programs. Davenport elected to save women's tennis as they have a commitment to the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference to keep NSIC championship sports, of which tennis is one. Men's swimming and diving, and women's bowling are not NSIC Championship sports.
Davenport was not the only one who opposed the student vote, outgoing Minnesota State Senate Association vice-president Brett Anderson blasted the results of the vote in a recent editorial in MSU's Reporter newspaper. Anderson expressed his frustration in students wanting lower tuition on one hand, but voting for cost increases on another.
"In a time where 80 faculty members got layoff notices, academic programs were being reduced, and whole majors where eliminated, students reached into their pockets to save four sports programs with 53 participants." said Anderson "How do we expect to maintain credibility in our fight for lower costs when we willingly raise them on ourselves? ".
A similar situation with a more drastic fee increase was seen this past fall at Minnesota State's sister school St. Cloud State University. Two separate referendums were voted on by SCSU students that resulted in a $1.74 per credit increase in student fees to save athletic teams from elimination, including their football team.
No comments:
Post a Comment