Guest column: Why GAF increase shouldn’t be approved

I admit, it is easy to get upset about the special treatment of athletes on this campus.

While athletes eat for free, we are forced to buy exorbitantly priced meal plans.

While athletes regularly travel on the university’s dime, not only do we struggle to receive funding from the university, but we also pay income tax on travel reimbursements.

While athletes workout in the new, multimillion dollar Sanford Coyote Sports Center, we are not granted access despite many of the rooms being unused.

And while athletes receive “full cost of attendance” scholarships, we are expected to pick up the tab for these ever-increasing athletic expenses via a $9/credit hour increase in GAF (an additional $145/semester for a student taking 15 credits).

Although easy, blaming athletes is unfair and ineffective. If offered the benefits listed above, any student would take them without hesitation. More importantly, athletes do not craft university policy, the administration of President James Abbott does.

Being angry with our fellow students does nothing but incite division when unity is needed to demand key policy changes from this administration.

In 2006, Abbott announced the transition of athletic programs from NCAA Division II to Division I. Since then, his administration has taken steps at whatever costs necessary to prove this decision the right one. After hiring new coaches and staff, constructing new buildings, providing student athletes with “full cost of attendance” scholarships, and more, this administration bills the student body for this costly transformation.

Administrators claim the athletics department pays for itself, but this is a lie (or perhaps, an alternative fact). Nearly 61 percent of athletic revenues in 2014-15 were in the form of subsidies, i.e., student fees, school or state support. Without these subsidies, the university lost $8,917,987 on athletics. It is not hard to figure out why the administration — so bent on justifying its decision to transition — wants to increase student fees through GAF.

At this point, you may think I am against the administration’s decision in 2006, but that is not the case. I strongly believe the University of South Dakota is a better institution today than it was a decade ago.

However, I also believe the administration failed to include students in this conversation. Although they point to a vote in which the student body supported a GAF increase to support athletics two years ago, only 13 percent of students participated despite a massive campaign by the administration.

Additionally, many students are unaware of GAF, let alone its allocation process, which has become so complex. It discourages student participation. Taken together, poor student participation and a convoluted allocation process give the administration the tools necessary to muscle through its priorities while deceptively claiming to have
student support.

As administrators attempt to foster a viable athletic department, they do so at our expense. In the process, they disenfranchise students and exacerbate divisions among the student body by creating the inequities we see between athletes and ourselves.

While administrators usually have good intent, it is important that we, as the student body demand our rightful place in these conversations.

If we do not speak up, who will?

Josh Arens is a senior at-large SGA senator.

Note: A guest column by an SGA senator in favor of the GAF increase couldn’t be obtained in time for print.