USA Today: How student fees quietly boost college sports
Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2010 5:48 pm
Big front page article above the fold with a 2nd article in the sports section. Towson, VMI, JMU, and Montana get considerable mention in the article. Good read. I'll paste part of it:
"How student fees quietly boost college sports
As athletics budgets rise, priorities are questioned
By Steve Berkowitz, Jodi Upton, Michael McCarthy and Jack Gillum
USA TODAY
Linda Randall says her daughter, Randi-Lyn, a student at Radford University in southwestern Virginia, is not a "die-hard" follower of the Highlanders sports teams.
Even so, by the time Randi-Lyn graduates in 2012, her parents probably will have paid an average of nearly $1,000 a year in fees to the school's athletics department. They just didn't know it from the school's billing statements or website.
"We're looking at five years because she changed majors. That's $5,000," Randall says. "That's one of her loans. That would have paid rent off-campus for a year. It's kind of disheartening. I don't think I'd have as much of a problem with it if I knew I was paying it. With what we're paying, it doesn't seem right."
Like most other schools in NCAA Division I, Radford relies on student fees to help support ever-expanding athletics budgets. Many schools, including Radford, do not itemize where those fees go for those who pay the tuition bills, USA TODAY found in an ongoing examination of college athletics finances. The amounts going to athletics are soaring, and account for as much as 23% of the required annual bill for in-state students.
Students were charged more than $795 million to support sports programs at 222 Division I public schools during the 2008-09 school year, according to an analysis of thousands of pages of financial documents. Adjusting for inflation, that's an 18% jump since 2005, making athletics funding at public schools a key force in the rapidly escalating cost of higher education.
At nearly all schools, various mandatory fees are tacked on to tuition, and can cover everything from student health care to computers. But the largest portion often goes toward running the school's athletics department. In exchange, students typically get free or reduced admission to sporting events.
But when demand exceeds available student seating, some students can get shut out. Many aren't interested in the games anyway.
"She does go to some of the games," Linda Randall says of her daughter, "and it's nice that they let them in free. … But she's going there for the (academics); she's not going to fund athletics."
There were 42 Division I athletics departments that reported receiving no student-fee money in 2009, but some of those schools say student-fee money is included in institutional funding provided to athletics programs. Many schools help cover the gap between their athletics departments' expenses and revenue because they regard sports teams — especially football and men's basketball teams — as important parts of campus life and excellent vehicles for generating publicity and alumni support......"
"......But at NCAA Division I schools, athletics spending has been rising at a faster rate than increases in academic spending, prompting various higher-education groups to call for a change in priorities.
At least six schools — all in Virginia — charged each of their students more than $1,000 as an athletics fee for the 2008-09 school year. That ranged from 10% to more than 23% of the total tuition and mandatory-fee charges for in-state students, the primary customers at most public universities.
Sandy Baum, a policy analyst for the College Board and co-author of the organization's annual Trends in College Pricing report, asks: Is athletics "10% of what you're getting out of college?"
At least five states, including Virginia, ban or limit the use of public and/or tuition money for athletics. For some schools in those states, relatively large fee charges become an alternative. In other states, on top of dedicated fees that might or might not have been approved by students, athletics departments often get other financial support from their schools.
The Randalls are not the only parents who were unaware of the scope of the athletics fees. Among the 20 schools nationally that had the highest estimated per-student athletics fee charges in 2009, based on a USA TODAY analysis, 15 schools confirmed that they do not disclose their per-student athletics fee charges on their billing statements, websites or in other official school publications.
Officials at four of those 15 schools — Radford, James Madison, Longwood and Norfolk State, all of which are in Virginia — said the information could be found in an appendix of a state report.
At Virginia Military Institute, the athletics fee figure is "buried in our budget," says Col. Stewart MacInnis, a spokesman. "I had to go dig it out myself. It's not where anybody would go look for it. You've identified a weak spot."
Some schools don't reveal how much students pay toward athletics, to try to avoid controversy.
"Why would you?" asks Jack Boyle, vice president for business affairs and finance at Cleveland State, which was just outside the top 20 in estimated per-student athletics-fee charges.
" …Whenever we spell something out, somebody decides they don't want that service. We don't spell out in tuition that 1.8% of it goes to run the religion department. 'I'm an atheist. Why should I pay for them? I'd never go to any of their courses.' "
Schools' reluctance to make public how much athletics departments get from student fees runs counter to federal, and some state-level, efforts to require greater transparency of college costs.
The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 this year began requiring schools to annually report to the Education Department separate figures for tuition and required fees. (They had been allowed to report a combined figure.)
Starting in July 2011, schools with the largest percentage increases in price over the previous three years will be listed by the department and required to report the reasons for the increases and what will be done to cut costs......"
".....In June, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics advocated making student fees apparent as a means to reform athletics spending.
"At a time when the cost of attendance at college is going up at a very high rate, it's a matter of transparency and fairness and equity that people ought to know what they're spending their money on," commission co-chairman William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, said at that time. "I think that is a way of bringing pressure to bear — this transparency and this exposure of revenues and expenditures — and beginning to put a hold on, to tamp down, the rate of increase (of spending) in intercollegiate athletics."
After Kirwan's comments, USA TODAY found that two schools in the Maryland system were among the top 20 in estimated per-student athletics fee charges in 2009. Maryland-Baltimore County specifically disclosed its athletics fees on its website and the university system's; Towson provided only the amount of what the bursar's office's website called a "University Fee."
"We do not itemize each cost or fee," bursar Thomas Ruby says. "We do not get into that detail. That's how this university operates."
Kirwan said in early August that Towson's athletics fee is "in the public domain" because it was discussed at a system board of regents public meeting, but "it isn't as transparent as I think it should be. It ought to be more transparent on the website, and it will be addressed."
Within two days, Towson's athletics fee — $767 per student for the 2010-11 school year — had been posted on the university system's site; it remains unspecified on Towson's site.
The Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a Washington, D.C.-based research group, plans to survey students to see how many are aware of athletics fees. But even the center acknowledges that increasing accountability is tough — mostly because even if students are aware of the fee, they rarely are clear on the true cost, administrative director Matthew Denhart says.
Many students pay their college bills with loans, so they don't think about what the true cost will be. And third-party payers — parents, scholarships, Pell Grants — pass on the cost to someone else.
"There's a lot of, 'I'm not paying for it anyway, so why fight it?' " Denhart says........"
"........At Montana, however, the student body rejected a proposed athletics-fee increase, overriding action by elected student leaders. Representatives from the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM) approved a plan to boost the athletics fee to $144 annually from $92, but other students were so outraged that they forced the issue to be put to an all-campus vote in May. The plan was defeated by a 2-to-1 ratio.
ASUM President Ashleen Williams, who supported the fee increase, predicts the issue will come up again in the fall. "Sometimes you have to make hard decisions," she says. Relying heavily on ticket revenue to fund athletics is a "really risky game" because sales — which have been Montana's largest or second-largest revenue source each of the past five years — can wane if teams don't win....."
".......There are students who say they don't mind paying sizable athletics fees, regardless of whether the fees are specifically disclosed. James Madison University was another school among the top 20 in estimated per-student fee charges that did not disclose its specific athletics fee ($1,080 in 2008-09, according to the state report the school cited). Student body President Andrew Reese says that "it's not cause for much concern for (students)" because the school provides free admission to events, puts student sections in prime seating areas, and "athletics is a very big part of the student culture."....."
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"How student fees quietly boost college sports
As athletics budgets rise, priorities are questioned
By Steve Berkowitz, Jodi Upton, Michael McCarthy and Jack Gillum
USA TODAY
Linda Randall says her daughter, Randi-Lyn, a student at Radford University in southwestern Virginia, is not a "die-hard" follower of the Highlanders sports teams.
Even so, by the time Randi-Lyn graduates in 2012, her parents probably will have paid an average of nearly $1,000 a year in fees to the school's athletics department. They just didn't know it from the school's billing statements or website.
"We're looking at five years because she changed majors. That's $5,000," Randall says. "That's one of her loans. That would have paid rent off-campus for a year. It's kind of disheartening. I don't think I'd have as much of a problem with it if I knew I was paying it. With what we're paying, it doesn't seem right."
Like most other schools in NCAA Division I, Radford relies on student fees to help support ever-expanding athletics budgets. Many schools, including Radford, do not itemize where those fees go for those who pay the tuition bills, USA TODAY found in an ongoing examination of college athletics finances. The amounts going to athletics are soaring, and account for as much as 23% of the required annual bill for in-state students.
Students were charged more than $795 million to support sports programs at 222 Division I public schools during the 2008-09 school year, according to an analysis of thousands of pages of financial documents. Adjusting for inflation, that's an 18% jump since 2005, making athletics funding at public schools a key force in the rapidly escalating cost of higher education.
At nearly all schools, various mandatory fees are tacked on to tuition, and can cover everything from student health care to computers. But the largest portion often goes toward running the school's athletics department. In exchange, students typically get free or reduced admission to sporting events.
But when demand exceeds available student seating, some students can get shut out. Many aren't interested in the games anyway.
"She does go to some of the games," Linda Randall says of her daughter, "and it's nice that they let them in free. … But she's going there for the (academics); she's not going to fund athletics."
There were 42 Division I athletics departments that reported receiving no student-fee money in 2009, but some of those schools say student-fee money is included in institutional funding provided to athletics programs. Many schools help cover the gap between their athletics departments' expenses and revenue because they regard sports teams — especially football and men's basketball teams — as important parts of campus life and excellent vehicles for generating publicity and alumni support......"
"......But at NCAA Division I schools, athletics spending has been rising at a faster rate than increases in academic spending, prompting various higher-education groups to call for a change in priorities.
At least six schools — all in Virginia — charged each of their students more than $1,000 as an athletics fee for the 2008-09 school year. That ranged from 10% to more than 23% of the total tuition and mandatory-fee charges for in-state students, the primary customers at most public universities.
Sandy Baum, a policy analyst for the College Board and co-author of the organization's annual Trends in College Pricing report, asks: Is athletics "10% of what you're getting out of college?"
At least five states, including Virginia, ban or limit the use of public and/or tuition money for athletics. For some schools in those states, relatively large fee charges become an alternative. In other states, on top of dedicated fees that might or might not have been approved by students, athletics departments often get other financial support from their schools.
The Randalls are not the only parents who were unaware of the scope of the athletics fees. Among the 20 schools nationally that had the highest estimated per-student athletics fee charges in 2009, based on a USA TODAY analysis, 15 schools confirmed that they do not disclose their per-student athletics fee charges on their billing statements, websites or in other official school publications.
Officials at four of those 15 schools — Radford, James Madison, Longwood and Norfolk State, all of which are in Virginia — said the information could be found in an appendix of a state report.
At Virginia Military Institute, the athletics fee figure is "buried in our budget," says Col. Stewart MacInnis, a spokesman. "I had to go dig it out myself. It's not where anybody would go look for it. You've identified a weak spot."
Some schools don't reveal how much students pay toward athletics, to try to avoid controversy.
"Why would you?" asks Jack Boyle, vice president for business affairs and finance at Cleveland State, which was just outside the top 20 in estimated per-student athletics-fee charges.
" …Whenever we spell something out, somebody decides they don't want that service. We don't spell out in tuition that 1.8% of it goes to run the religion department. 'I'm an atheist. Why should I pay for them? I'd never go to any of their courses.' "
Schools' reluctance to make public how much athletics departments get from student fees runs counter to federal, and some state-level, efforts to require greater transparency of college costs.
The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 this year began requiring schools to annually report to the Education Department separate figures for tuition and required fees. (They had been allowed to report a combined figure.)
Starting in July 2011, schools with the largest percentage increases in price over the previous three years will be listed by the department and required to report the reasons for the increases and what will be done to cut costs......"
".....In June, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics advocated making student fees apparent as a means to reform athletics spending.
"At a time when the cost of attendance at college is going up at a very high rate, it's a matter of transparency and fairness and equity that people ought to know what they're spending their money on," commission co-chairman William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, said at that time. "I think that is a way of bringing pressure to bear — this transparency and this exposure of revenues and expenditures — and beginning to put a hold on, to tamp down, the rate of increase (of spending) in intercollegiate athletics."
After Kirwan's comments, USA TODAY found that two schools in the Maryland system were among the top 20 in estimated per-student athletics fee charges in 2009. Maryland-Baltimore County specifically disclosed its athletics fees on its website and the university system's; Towson provided only the amount of what the bursar's office's website called a "University Fee."
"We do not itemize each cost or fee," bursar Thomas Ruby says. "We do not get into that detail. That's how this university operates."
Kirwan said in early August that Towson's athletics fee is "in the public domain" because it was discussed at a system board of regents public meeting, but "it isn't as transparent as I think it should be. It ought to be more transparent on the website, and it will be addressed."
Within two days, Towson's athletics fee — $767 per student for the 2010-11 school year — had been posted on the university system's site; it remains unspecified on Towson's site.
The Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a Washington, D.C.-based research group, plans to survey students to see how many are aware of athletics fees. But even the center acknowledges that increasing accountability is tough — mostly because even if students are aware of the fee, they rarely are clear on the true cost, administrative director Matthew Denhart says.
Many students pay their college bills with loans, so they don't think about what the true cost will be. And third-party payers — parents, scholarships, Pell Grants — pass on the cost to someone else.
"There's a lot of, 'I'm not paying for it anyway, so why fight it?' " Denhart says........"
"........At Montana, however, the student body rejected a proposed athletics-fee increase, overriding action by elected student leaders. Representatives from the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM) approved a plan to boost the athletics fee to $144 annually from $92, but other students were so outraged that they forced the issue to be put to an all-campus vote in May. The plan was defeated by a 2-to-1 ratio.
ASUM President Ashleen Williams, who supported the fee increase, predicts the issue will come up again in the fall. "Sometimes you have to make hard decisions," she says. Relying heavily on ticket revenue to fund athletics is a "really risky game" because sales — which have been Montana's largest or second-largest revenue source each of the past five years — can wane if teams don't win....."
".......There are students who say they don't mind paying sizable athletics fees, regardless of whether the fees are specifically disclosed. James Madison University was another school among the top 20 in estimated per-student fee charges that did not disclose its specific athletics fee ($1,080 in 2008-09, according to the state report the school cited). Student body President Andrew Reese says that "it's not cause for much concern for (students)" because the school provides free admission to events, puts student sections in prime seating areas, and "athletics is a very big part of the student culture."....."
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