Athletic Association proposes fee increase

The Athletic Association (AA) recently requested the Mandatory Student Fee Committee of Student Government for an increase in mandatory student athletic fees. Dan Radakovich, director of Athletics, presented at a public hearing on Wednesday for graduate students.

"One thing we look at is how we compare with the rest of the schools with the rest of the conference. We're 11th out of 12 teams that provide support through its student populations and our fund balance has steadily declined in the past four years," Radakovich said.

The AA proposed to increase the mandatory student fees from $128 to $224 per school year, a 75 percent increase.

According to Radakovich, the fee stayed at a constant rate of $100 throughout the 1990s. The recent request to increase athletic fees would increase the organization's revenues from students to about three million dollars a year. According to Radakovich, this would nearly double the annual amount of student revenue.

"We must gather more revenue. We're looking at our marketing and optimizing our expenditures in advertising, sales, and media outlets. We also must find new sources of revenue," Radakovich said.

According to Radakovich, the AA has accrued a significant number of costs and expenses over the past ten years. These include annual eight million dollars in debts and increases in utility, athletic scholarships and travel costs as well as personnel salaries.

"We are introducing the TECH fund, which will be supported by our season ticket holders. We need all three entities, the ticket holders, students and the Institute, to support us," Radakovich said.

According to Radakovich controling cost is also important. "We have a fourth entity: our fiscal responsibility and what are we doing as a department to maintain a cost control," Radakovich said.

Radakovich identified the three sources for the association's revenue as alumni donations, students and the Institute's budget.

He introduced the TECH fund, which would encourage season ticket holders to donate money towards the AA. The seating prices are based on the seating location in the stadium and coliseum.

In addition, Radakovich presented ways in which the AA can improve upon its infrastructure and financing.

In fact, the association recently sold the rights to enjoy the benefits of the official director's club house for a total profit of $40,000 per year. Some top priorities on the director's agenda for improving the ways and means of the association include restructuring its financial accounting methods, receiving tax breaks from the Georgia legislature and removing certain faculty positions.

Radakovich presented how faculty members of the AA are contributing to rebuilding the solvency of the association.

"When student tuition costs increase, [the athletic department] must pay more in the costs for student athletic scholarships," Radakovich said.

The AA is not the only entity to pay the punch for high tuition costs and fees. Attendees at the public hearing were able to express their concern.

Some of the major issues brought up by graduate students were the inability to receive student tickets, the already high costs and expenses for students and future changes in fees.

Some students are concerned about future increases of fees. Several students at the meeting expressed their disapproval for any increase in fees.

An international student expressed how she does not qualify for federal aid and struggles to pay for personal costs and insurance expenses. She said that increasing athletic fees does not benefit her and others in similar situations.

Some students proposed removing certain teams and players. However, this option would demote Tech from being classified as a Division I school.

"If we no longer become a Division I school, we would just be like MIT or Emory," Radakovich said.

The main difficulty students at the meeting said they are having with the increase is because it is being raised by 75 percent all at once and not gradually. However, as Radacovich pointed out, the Athletic fee was not increase during the entire decade of the 1990s. According to Radakovich because the fee was not raised gradually during that time, the fee needs to be raised all at once to catch up to what it should have been at in the first place.

Currently, Tech ranks 11 out of 12 in the Atlantic Coast Conference as far as lowest Athletic fee. Radakovich would like to see that change to around six.

Currently, the student population contributes just under four percent of the budget for the Athletic Association, where the national average is around seven percent. The increase would bring the Tech student contribution to 7.8 percent.