Editorial: Bleachers are poor use of referendum money

When the athletic referendum was initially passed, we recognized the need the athletic department had for more funds, even if we disagreed with the way it was passed. After all, the other universities in the Lone Star Conference had one, and our athletic department was competing against schools that had many more scholarships to give out, and therefore much more power to recruit star athletes. With the athletic referendum, our athletic department would finally have the money to fund more scholarships and increase the prestige and success of our university.

Then the athletic department goes and allocates $700,000 of the athletic referendum on bleachers for our football field, when the ones we already have are hardly ever full.

It's not that the athletic department would come right out and say that. When quoted in an article concerning Field House renovations, athletic director Carlton Cooper mentioned some fundraising would take place to help fund other renovations, including the new bleachers. Apparently, fundraising simply means taking $50,000 out of the athletic fee for at least the next 14 years.

We do not think having more bleachers is a bad idea. It's just a waste of money, considering that during both high school and college football games, the most popular sport in East Texas, the bleachers we have aren't anywhere close to being filled. Cooper mentioned the bleachers would be used for UIL and high school competitions, which sounds great, but our current bleacher situation is not keeping us from doing this now. And, if it did, will we be making back that $700,000 from these competitions?

These are questions that would be nice to have answers to, considering these financial decisions are being made with students' money. We've never been against the athletic department receiving more funds. The athletes that work hard to represent our university deserve to have proper facilities and supplies. But it is this kind of spending that just confuses us. The athletic department should focus on funding scholarships until we are at the same level as the other successful schools in the Lone Star Conference.

In the future, if and when the students vote to give more money to the university to do with what they will, we can only hope the administrations will consider this isn't Monopoly money they're spending. Building bleachers to be used a few times a semester by competitions not relating to university students doesn't exactly sound like the best use of our money. With the state legislature calling for budget cuts, we shouldn't spend this kind of money on seats for imaginary crowds.