Undergraduate Student Government Downtown senators approved a bill Friday that would add a $150-per-year athletic fee to the yearly cost of attendance. Student governments on the West and Polytechnic campuses passed the measure, meaning Tempe’s vote Tuesday will not affect the bill’s passage.
The proposal now moves to University President Michael Crow’s desk for finalization.
Currently, Sun Devil Athletic receives $10 million from student tuition funds. If Crow signs the bill, it would replace the fund with the $150 fee and create a student-athletics advisory board to oversee it. Athletics would lose $2.5 million in revenue and have limited access to tuition funds. The tuition funds freed up by the fee would be reinvested into various areas, among them weekend shuttles, pay raises for graduate teaching assistants and free-of-charge graduate school test preparation.
The vote occurred just one week after the senators received “general overview” paperwork, Barrett Sen. Hattie Hayes said. Hayes said the week gave senators plenty of time.
“I didn’t have any specific meetings with my constituents, but it’s not like I don’t see people at ASU,” she said. Hayes added that she talked to “dozens and found maybe six that oppose.”
The bill underwent ongoing edits during the week after President Frank Smith and the Executive Board notified the senators. Cronkite Sen. Erika Tuerr said the senators received the full-form bill, as introduced at Friday’s meeting, the night before.
“In order for us senators to talk to our constituents we need to understand ourselves what the bill is,” Tuerr said.
Changes to the bill, specifically the reinvestment of tuition funds that received mention Friday but not at the town hall meeting on Oct. 21, included game-day wristband distribution on all ASU locations, unspecified improvements to Devils on Mill and other game day events, and the hiring of additional teaching and research assistants. Smith also confirmed that the entire student section will be lower-bowl seating next year. The funds would also go toward extended tutoring hours, higher subject knowledge requirements for tutors, improved consistency in online classes, free downloads of software and child care vouchers.
Senators in opposition said the fee reduces ASU’s affordability. ASU currently ranks as the nation’s seventh-best-value university, according to Washington Monthly. Senator Frank Vasquez said students are already “balancing every penny” and may be hurt by the addition of another fee.
“The fee will affect not just us, but next year’s students and next year’s students and next year’s students,” Senate President Stephany Caceres said. “Who’s to say tuition won’t rise three or four years from now?”
About half the senators present remained resistant despite Smith’s appeals for a vote, instead asking for more time. Students feel there’s “no democratic process, (and) just whatever Frank Smith says is going to happen,” Vasquez said.
Vasquez and other senators moved to table the bill, which would give them an additional two weeks and allow them time to “tell students what the documentation was trying to convey,” Caceres said.
A motion to table the bill was unsuccessful. Hayes, who supported the bill, said she was “tired of stagnation” and wanted the vote to go forward. Others, including Sally Lopez, the head of the Downtown Affairs committee, said opinions probably wouldn’t change in two weeks.
The vote went ahead and the bill passed 5 to 4 with two abstentions.
Sen. Alexis Kramer, who abstained, said she wanted more time to gauge her constituency’s opinion. If reactions are overwhelmingly negative, “we’ll take action immediately,” she said.
“I can’t please everyone, but I want to hear from more students,” Kramer said. “Luckily, the year is still young.”
Parks and recreation management major Ryan Boyd, who was the only student in attendance to hear the vote, accused USGD of using the fact that votes were taking place on other campuses as an excuse “to railroad such a bill.” The responsible thing to do, he said, would have been to delay the bill so that more voices could be heard.
“I’d say this was a shameful display of democracy today,” Boyd said in his comment to the body after the vote.
Editor’s note: Sen. Hattie Hayes is a contributing reporter for the Downtown Devil. She was not involved in the reporting or writing of this article.
Contact the reporter at noah.b.briggs@asu.edu
