Richard,

That same television news program that reported UTC students voted to
impose on themselves an athletic fee also reported that a new
president had been selected for "the University of Tennessee at
Knoxville"...

(however, the news program did not show the new president wearing an
orange tie as did the local newspaper -- seems to me that if the new
president is president of the system he might consider wearing a
neutral colored tie...  perhaps, cardinal red?)

-k




>If you read the paper this morning, you may might be as disturbed as I was
>to learn that "university officials" may ask for a fee "regardless of the
>outcome."  One television station even reported last night that students
>have already approved the fee. Chuck Cantrell has corrected that and it
>will be mentioned tonight that students can vote Friday. Still, with the
>elections still going on, what message does this send to students? Vote,
>but if it is a no, you are wasting your time.
>
>And time is a factor during exam week. Having such a vote when students are
>not here every day except to take exams, was not right in the first place.
>The issue was also not in support of the entire sports program as stated,
>nor really about equity and Title Nine, but to plug the annual hole in the
>football budget and perhaps to create more "off budget" funding for the new
>basketball training building.
>
>Note too that if this fee is imposed, the $1.2 million increase in the
>sports budget (I understand that about half of the current fee goes to
>athletics) will be a much, much larger increase there (a total budget of
>$7.3 million is possible) than the possible increase in the academics
>affairs budget, which may be enhanced by an instructional enhancement fee
>and a 9.5% tuition increase, for a total of $1.77, which is more than the
>possible increase in sports funding, but much less a percentage.
>
>If this is truly the case, the last Budget Committee of the year on April
>30 will reveal the reality behind the rhetoric about priorities. And our
>students who bothered to vote will have learned a valuable lesson about
>democracy that they can take away from UTC.
>
>Richard


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