An athletic referendum, which will raise the price of tuition, is being voted on Oct. 21 and 22 by students via their MyLeo accounts.
The referendum, which was proposed by the Student Government Association (SGA), will raise tuition $10 per credit hour up to 13 hours if passed. According to Dean of Students Brian Nichols, this referendum is very similar to one proposed in the fall semester of 2008. There has to be a one-vote majority in order for the proposal to pass according to Nichols. If the referendum is passed the fee will be put in affect beginning the fiscal year of 2011.
Nichols said the university has been advertising the referendum in different classes so far and plans to continue advertising the proposal through Thursday.
“We have tables through Thursday in the Sam Rayburn Student Center to inform students about the referendum,” he said.
Some students feel the referendum was not advertised well enough.
“I heard something about it, but I did not know any details,” sophomore Chris Hall said. “I disagree with that and I am not for this. I want more information, or at least to be told.”
Sophomore Tony Emerson said no one has explained the referendum to her, and based on the information she does have, she is not in favor of the increase.
“This sucks if it is going to affect everyone,” she said.
Nichols said he does not think this referendum was any less advertised then last year.
“We have been relying on faculty members to get the word out,” he said. “We told all the deans and have gone into several freshman seminar classes to talk about this.”
President of Texas A&M University-Commerce Dan Jones said there was no intention to under-advertise the referendum.
“This is not a conspiracy of silence,” he said. “We do not want to win this thing by nobody showing up.”
SGA president Michelle Tolbert said the referendum was approved by the SGA because they felt it would be beneficial to the university. Tolbert said the fee proposal was not advertised last week due to Homecoming.
“We let them have their week and then we started talking to classes and setting up info booths, which is what we are doing this week,” she said.
Jones said the vote was originally scheduled for last week, but the university rescheduled the vote for this week because administration felt there was not enough time to publicize the vote.
The problem with the old referendum according to Tolbert was people were not informed about the fee.
“Instead of the SGA telling people how to vote, we instead inform and supply information for students to vote,” she said.
Students thought last year’s referendum would only benefit athletics, which is not the case according to Tolbert.
“The referendum will allow athletics to have their own money instead of drawing from student service fees, which other things draw money from,” she said. “It won’t remove athletics completely, but it will allow money to be available for other things that benefit the campus like career services, residential living, and learning because there are plans to build another resident building.”
Tolbert said it is important for students not to be selfish regarding the referendum.
“Students need to keep in mind that this is like paying it forward,” she said. “10 years ago, students were voting referendum on the new recreational center and if they were selfish, thinking ‘This won’t benefit me, I’m graduating this year’ and voted no, we would not have it.”
Students can vote for or against the referendum Oct. 21 and 22 on their MyLeo accounts.
Additional information gathered for this story collected by Jared Watson, Megan Carey, Adam Troxtell and Duke Glover.