Student Athletic Fee

Army of Dad · November 4, 2014

Want to know what's sad? There was +2 on that yesterday. That means there are at the least 3 people who disagree. SMH. It's a university first.

What was the plus/minus on the library supporters board?

The Fake Lonnie Finch · November 4, 2014

So, are you saying that we should love the one we're with? Is love all we need?

You should only love the one you're with if you can't be with the one you love...and, you have a rubber handy.

Eagle1855 · November 4, 2014

I'm an athletics guy but I've gotta agree with Ben Gooding in that I'm much more concerned about our universities struggle for Tier 1 status than anything else.

This.

I may be alone, but if we lived in an alternate universe of mutual exclusivity, I'd give up football entirely if it meant being granted Tier 1 status.

MeanMag · November 5, 2014

Some universities have more advantages than others.

http://www.texasalmanac.com/topics/education/beginnings-university-texas-and-texas-am-university

Initially, the interest earned by investments of the oil money from university lands went to the University only. However, in 1931, the legislature split the net income, with two-thirds going to the University of Texas and one-third to Texas A&M University. The income was further split in 1984, when the legislature voted to include all institutions in the University of Texas System, not just the main university at Austin, and the entire Texas A&M University System.

Edited November 5, 2014 by MeanMag

UNTflyer · November 5, 2014

Q1: is that $30M (half of the originally projected $60M) or $39M (half of $78M)?

The fee revenue can be used however the AD wnts, but the committment was to pay half the stadium with the athletic fee.

Q2: "After the stadium is paid for, the fees will continue to pay for other athletic programs." This statement is located in article above. Does the fee end after the stadium is paid? or will it continue to pay for "other athletic programs"?

The fee will continue as long as UNT has bonds to pay.

Q3: from my research it appears that Texas and Texas A&M students do not pay a dedicated athletics fee, so it doesn't appear that we have the lowest fee in the state. Is ours the lowest of the other schools? (Texas Tech, Houston, UTSA, UTEP, Texas State)

I don't think this is correct, and athletic fees are paid by almost every university. UNT was the oddball in not having an athletic fee.

Q4: Also, we're currently at $10 (stated as $7 because a student services fee was cut by $3), can we really only raise it to $11? or is the raise to a maximum possible? (It appears that the maximum allowed is $15, is that correct?)

The maximum fee permitted under the legislation that approve the fee is $20. It can be increased by 10% per year by the BOR, or the students can vote to increase it to any amount up to $20.

Mad Hatter · November 5, 2014

So...you're saying I could join the Rice Fan Club for $50 but I have to pay $125 for ours? Isn't our product that much better?

untjim1995 · November 5, 2014

The athletic fee and how it go set up, IMO set back Athletics at UNT and is a failure on the part of RV and the BOR to persuade the idiot Chancellor Jackson to fight for what should be a gateway and open door for the University in this case Athletics, but it also shows that UNT will never fully support athletics like our state counterparts, because we have incompetent administration from the top down.

Here's the thing about Lee Jackson. To alot of us on this board, he is an idiot, for several reasons. The athletics fee that we charge half of what powerhouses like UTSA, Texas State, and Lamar legally can and do charge just kills me and is right up there for a primary reason that I feel that Jackson is terrible. But here's the rub--to the vast majority of UNT's family circle (BOR, admisnistration, faculty, student body, alumni, and Denton citizenry) Jackson is a great chancellor. He is protecting their interests that have stood for decades (low costs, focus on education and arts/music, avoid athletic funding as much as possible). A lot of us can bitch about Lee Jackson, but just like RV, he is the poster boy of how the UNT BOR wants things run. If you don't believe this, ask yourself what other university system would keep a chancellor on board and EXTEND HIM after a multi-million dollar scandal occurs that will cause major budget shortfalls, of which dirty old athletics get the lion share of the cuts?

We don't like athletics here--its not because we have an incompetent administration, its because we have always had an adminstration that competently protects the interests that the school has always put on a pedestal.

Ben Gooding · November 5, 2014

How do we get a voice of who is put on the BOR? I know the Governor appoints them, but how do we, the alum, put our say in the direction this university wants to head? Seems like bad practice that the Governor gets to come in here and either throw darts in the dark to pick the BOR or he is told who to select. So the same ole same ole stuff happens at North Texas. Is there not a middle man, a vote, anything?

gradumacated · November 6, 2014

This may be useful to the athletics fee:

http://studentaccounting.unt.edu/explanation-fees

To whit -

Intercollegiate Athletics Fee
$10.00 per hour
This fee is assessed in proportion to the number of semester credit hours for which a student registers to cover the cost of UNT athletics programs.

I was surprised that it was $10; from memory during the "campaign" for the student fee I thought it was introduced at $15/sch. Perhaps when it was passed that was the maximum it could be.

You get what you pay for. It's also worth noting that out of the 120+ FBS athletics programs, maybe 5 actually make money and are self-sufficient, UT being one of those 5. All the other athletics programs are run at a loss and are subsidized by their parent institutions.

If it comes down to library vs athletics it's no contest: libraries will win every time otherwise what's the point of having a university? Just call the athletics programs a minor league system and be done with it.