Students to consider sustainable funding model for intercollegiate athletics

Student News

UC Santa Cruz has 15 teams competing in the NCAA's Division III, including women's soccer.UC Santa Cruz students will vote this spring on a fee that would provide the intercollegiate athletics program with a sustainable funding model and provide access to athletic-related activities to students who meet the Educational Opportunity Programs criteria.
The Office of Physical Education, Recreation, and Sports is proposing a $38.50 -per-quarter fee, which if approved would provide the NCAA Division III program with approximately $1.1 million beginning in fall 2018. Approximately $160,000 would be generated to support athletic activities of student who meet EOP criteria, approximately 40 percent of the student body.
The referendum’s authors are trying to build support across campus for the fee. To date, they’ve received sponsorship from the Student Union Assembly and a handful of colleges.
Students will vote in May. If approved, the fee would sunset in spring 2042.
Andrea Willer, executive director for the Office of Physical Education, Recreation, and Sports, said the new business model was developed in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, alumni, and campus supporters.
“This collaboration enabled us to involve and engage the campus in ways we were not able to in the past,” Willer said. “This campuswide dialogue has not only informed and shaped the new business model but has also validated the multiple benefits intercollegiate athletics can bring to the greater campus community.”
The business model and fee proposal were developed by OPERS and Paul Simpson, an alumnus who played intercollegiate basketball and has a background in business. It comes as two committees—one commissioned by the Academic Senate and one of alumni and foundation board members—extensively researched the topic and issued separate reports. Both committees, among many recommendations, asked that the campus consider every reasonable measure to keep the intercollegiate athletics program, which started in 1981.
The current program consists of 15 men and women’s teams, which ...

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