I’ve been attending North Dakota State for four years, and honestly, I still don’t know everything that I’m being charged for to get a degree.
By now, if NDSU athletics decided to increase how much students pay toward Bison sports, I wouldn’t even flinch.
It’ll come down to a vote. Will the 35.5 percent increase in student fees that athletics is proposing pass? I’d bet yes. It comes down to President Dean Bresciani and a simple yes or no. And with the success and power athletics holds, it’ll get a yes out of him.
But NDSU claims to be student focused, as Bresciani often proclaims.
Do I think its justified? No, I don’t.
I don’t think athletics should be back asking for more money just two years into a five-year plan. Heck, student health services stretched a five-year plan out six years, as student health service director Patricia Dirk said last Monday.
Our athletic programs have achieved a lot of success recently and make a compelling case. Think of all the fun Bison athletics has brought NDSU students in the last two years.
Bison football playoff games. “College GameDay,” twice. A chance to book trips to go watch the men’s basketball team play in the NCAA Tournament. And, of course, Frisco.
It’s been a blast and we as students should give thanks to NDSU athletics for all these wonderful events.
Just think if you went to University of North Dakota. Tears, I know.
But NDSU athletics also has to think about the students who never step foot inside the Fargodome. The students who have never watched a Bison athletic event and never will.
They shouldn’t have to pay $6.37 per credit over the next three years to fund athletics’ budget, even if it’s just a $1.67 more than what they are paying now.
We pay enough already.
For example, take a student who is studying chemistry. I’m not hating on that major at all, but those students do spend a lot of time in the library. And from the friends I know who are studying chemistry, they rarely attend sporting events at NDSU because they don’t have time.
They shouldn’t have to put money toward athletics if they’ve never been to a Bison athletic event.
Right now, students fund 7 percent of NDSU’s athletic budget. This equals $1.4 million.
The proposed increase hits everyone equally, which seems like a punishment to students who never attend an NDSU athletic event.
Money is money, and college kids don’t have a lot of it.
There must be a different solution, right?
Now I’m not here to bore you with numbers, but I am here to give the solution to this problem.
I know NDSU students and fans dislike UND with all their hearts, but that university to the north has a great plan that NDSU should copy.
UND students have the option to purchase a season-ticket package or a single-game ticket for hockey games.
If you want the Friday and Saturday season package, fork out $140 and you have student season tickets.
If you want to just attend Friday games its $70, but if you want to attend just Saturday games it’ll cost you $80.
UND seniors have priority when the eligible time is set.
Now for single-game tickets, it costs a UND student $10.
Adopting UND’s plan is what NDSU must do to alleviate students’ fees, not hitting students who don’t benefit from athletics.
Do this for Bison football games, and increasing student fees to help pay for “team travel, equipment and supplies” won’t have to happen.
NDSU claims it is student focused, but little about the proposed plan is just that.