Clarification on Student Athletics Fee

From Doug Smock’s article in today’s Charleston Gazette, http://www.wvgazette.com/Sports/todayssportscolumn/201006130444?page=2&build=cache

Upon reading that Marshall students pay $890 a year, or $445 per semester, for the cause of Thundering Herd athletics, I wanted a recount.

I recalled from another era that some of the broad-based student activity fee goes to other purposes, such as recreation, student health services, student government, etc. Essentially, I want to see if the Center for College Affordability and Productivity is feeding us a good figure.

Another side to all this: As far as schools building their athletic fortress with student fees, Marshall is not exactly a champion among its mid-major peers. Back in 2002-03, Marshall was dead last in the all-public Mid-American Conference, only close to Eastern Michigan.

The MAC days were wrapping up when MU passed a $100 a semester "special equity fee," beginning with the 2004-05. Ostensibly, that helped the athletic department stay out of hot water in regards to Title IX. That put the student athletic fee at $204 a semester, which makes me wonder if the $445 figure that has both Charleston papers in a snit is even accurate.

Today, Marshall resides in a league with five other public schools and six private schools. David Steele, the numbers man in the athletic department, tells me Marshall's revenue from student fees was about $4 million in the 2008-09 school year, or roughly one-sixth (NOT one-half) of the budget.

That figure falls well below the average $6.4 million among the six public C-USA schools, but it is more than double the $1.77 million MU collected in 2002-03.

Back to the MU tuition breakdown, well, it is not available. Back in the Stone Age, aka the 1980s, the undergraduate catalog dutifully printed how the fees were divided, itemizing every recipient to the last dime.

In the 2009-10 catalog, available on a PDF file, there is no such breakdown. You'll pay your base tuition of $2,299 a semester, and you'll like it.

That will not do. If I'm a parent about to write a tuition check, I want a breakdown of where my money goes, and I want it now. The rest of the public is entitled to it, as well, in the clearest terms.