Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - A&M-CC referendum dies in Austin

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Saturday, June 2, 2001
A&M-CC referendum dies in Austin
Fee increase benefitting athletics fails to become bill
By Darrin Scheid
Caller-Times
The athletic fee referendum at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi has hit a road block on the way back to campus.
   Students voted last December to assess themselves a separate $4-per-credit-hour fee to pay for the 14 men's and women's sports at the university, which recently finished its third overall year of Division I competition.
   The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents sent the plan to the Texas Legislature in January for final approval before the university could start charging the fee. The legislative session ended Monday, and the student athletic fee referendum stalled in committee and was never introduced as a bill, said A&M System communications director Brenda Sims.
   Islanders athletic director Dan Viola said the fee would have been a small boost for the athletic department now, and a big victory in the long-term.
   "What it means is that we're going to use the funding format we've always used, which is the one most universities use," Viola said. "It would have really helped us grow over the next three to five years."
   Currently, a student taking 12 credit hours at A&M-CC pays the maximum $150 in student service fees, and 32 percent of that goes toward athletics.
   The A&M-CC athletic budget is $3 million. That budget comes from student service fees, corporate sponsorships and money raised by the athletic booster club known as the Tarpon Foundation.
   The student fee referendum would have changed that structure. If passed in the legislature, students taking at least 12 credit hours would have paid $144 in student service fees and $48 to athletics. The $4 per credit hour would have been raised to $5 in 2002 and $6 in 2003.
   Students passed the referendum by a 38-vote margin of 244-206.
   University officials said at the time that less than 10 percent of the total student body voted in the Dec. 7 election.
   "I'm disappointed by it because I voted for it," said 23-year-old graduate student Elita Caldwell, whose husband, Clay Caldwell, is a former student body president. "I think that in order for the university to grow, you must have something to attract people. Athletics is a good way. That's why a lot of people go to College Station and UT-Austin, because of their sports."
   Viola said the separate athletic fee idea was taken from the University of Texas-Arlington, the only school in the state to fund its department with this type of fee. UTA students passed its separate athletic fee referendum in April 1998, and soon after, it passed through the UT System Board of Regents and through the 1999 legislative session.
   Viola said he did not know why the A&M-CC fee failed, and he said he did not know if the university would try to pass it again with a student referendum in two years, the next time the legislature meets.
   "Those are things that really can't be answered through our department," Viola said.
   Calls to University President Dr. Robert Furgason on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week were not returned.
   Viola said his department can continue to grow with the current student fee portion of the budget, but it will take more help from outside sources.
   The booster club raised about $280,000 last year, Viola said.
   The athletic department sold its 10 sponsorship packages last year for men's and women's basketball that range in price from $30,000 to $40,000, he said.
   "I still think there is great growth opportunities with corporations and our Tarpon Foundation," Viola said. "We haven't hit the ceiling on that. I want these to grow each year. The goal is for us to raise enough sponsorship money to cover the cost of scholarships, which are at about $800,000 right now. Over the long term, I think that's realistic."


Contact Darrin Scheid at 886-3747 or scheidd@caller.com

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