Dear Signpost,

I would like to thank the Signpost for their on-going coverage of the Student Fee Recommendation Committee. The WSU website lists the student fees for the ’11-’12 year at $775. This is a lot of money, and its allocation is an understandably heated topic. I would like to comment on the Feb. 8th article “SFRC finalizes decisions.”

A fiduciary relationship exists when one person or panel handles money or property for another. In this case, I would argue that the SFRC is making decisions for what to do with the student’s money (the fees).  The “responsibility” dictates that the committee should make decisions in the best interest of the body that they are handling the money for and also to protect their assets.

The SFRC’s recommendation to allocate $30,000 to athletics for POSSIBLE NCAA changes, while grossly underfunding other requests, is failing to meet their fiduciary responsibility for three distinct reasons.

1. The article states that if passed, universities can pay athletes an additional $2,000 yearly — on top of scholarship funds. PAYING ATHLETES IS CURRENTLY ILLEGAL. Allocating funds for illegal activities is not in the best interest of the student body.
2. There are multiple CURRENT needs by many departments. For example, when parking in the upper lot by Skyline, there is no sidewalk or crosswalk, creating an unsafe situation for those student commuters — daily. Also, I tried to get an appointment for a math tutor and was told that no tutors were available for the rest of the semester. And yet the biggest allocation was set to a fund an NCAA rule that does not yet exist. I would like to request that the SFRC, Senate and Administration publicly list their merits of why voluntarily paying a student athlete on top of their scholarship is more important than funding another tutor or providing a safe walking path on the outskirts of campus.
3. One of the reasons stated for the NCAA rule was to allow compensation to an athlete for additional revenue their efforts bring in. This does not mean that all athletes MUST be paid. If in fact the athlete contributes to the schools bottom line, that increase is measurable based on ticket sales, or school logos sales. The SFRC has confused student fees as a revenue generating item. Maybe it all goes in the same pot, but the difference is I can choose to buy a ticket to a game, I cannot choose whether or not to pay the student fee. Payment to athletes should be funded by the revenue they bring in, not by mandatory student fees.

I work to pay for my school, and expenses, and now, thanks to the SFRC . . . also to pay for somebody else’s expenses!

Dear Senate and administration: Please don’t rubber stamp this recommendation! Perhaps you can do your fiduciary responsibility, unlike the SFRC.

Regards,

Working WSU Student.