Time to raise tuition

[ELKMT]

With the coming cuts to the budget the university should raise tuition to help grow the athletic budget ( with focus on football & bball). Raise it 150 per semester and you would bring in close to 4 million to help with facility upgrades, assistant salaries & ect.,also ...

Sell beer at football games & in the arena. Burman has said this will never happen but I see no issue with it. We allow open containers at 8am to tailgate, and we have a bar in the student union. It is an opportunity for revenue, and a way to improve game day experience.

[cali2wyo]

Too lazy to look it up... what is the current tuition rate in state/out of state? How much is a full time student paying in fees?

[McPeachy]

Selling beer is way to outside the current way of thinking. Even though it has been brought 1,000,000,000 times, I still agree it should be sold.

And it may stop the fanbase from hammering down as many shots & beers you can before heading into the game. Oh, and it may stop fans from leaving in masses at half. It may.

[OrediggerPoke]

Strongly Disagree. Tuition is not the proper means to raise the athletic budget.

I have always disagreed with students subsidizing other students by funding athletic scholarships and athletics budgets through increased tuition and fees.

[MrTitleist]

Considering how far buried most of us are in student loan debt I don't think raising tuition to cover athletic costs is a good idea.

[ELKMT]

Fact is student fees already go to athletic budgets. I can't find specific numbers for UW but a Forbes article states upto 80% of student fees go to athletics in non-power conferences. So call it a fee and not tuition.

Anyone know how what monies from fees and tuition at UW already go to the athletic budget?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/2014/1 ... -programs/

[SnowyRange]

Anyone know how what monies from fees and tuition at UW already go to the athletic budget?

Fees: in 2014, $1.8mm.

Tuition isn't earmarked for athletics. But university funds going to athletics was about $14.2mm.

Meaning that our athletics budge is subsidized from the school to the tune of about 50%.

[Cowduck]

Fact is student fees already go to athletic budgets. I can't find specific numbers for UW but a Forbes article states upto 80% of student fees go to athletics in non-power conferences. So call it a fee and not tuition.

Anyone know how what monies from fees and tuition at UW already go to the athletic budget?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/2014/1 ... -programs/

I don't know what it is now, but I remember it was a pittance when I was at UW. It was a fraction of the "activities fee" (I think that's what it was called) that I paid at Oregon. And yes, Oregon charged graduate/professional students said fee.

[laxwyo]

Raising tuition to pay for faculty raises would do a lot for the university. That way, when Mead asks for money, he's not asking for it AND matching funds for athletics. Then slip in $50 athletic fee. I'm not sure how much tuition has increased over the years but it's still very very affordable especially since state is subsidizing students with Hathaway scholarships

[SnowyRange]

With the coming cuts to the budget the university should raise tuition to help grow the athletic budget ( with focus on football & bball). Raise it 150 per semester and you would bring in close to 4 million to help with facility upgrades, assistant salaries & ect.,also ...

Nope.

First, and primarily, UW has a hell of a lot of general budget needs that would come before athletics, especially with the probable general budget cuts from the state coming down the pike. Second, the state tends to reduce the support to UW in proportion to tuition increases or, at least, be very skeptical of tuition raises, as is the BOT...because it's such a hot political topic.

Sell beer at football games & in the arena. Burman has said this will never happen but I see no issue with it. We allow open containers at 8am to tailgate, and we have a bar in the student union. It is an opportunity for revenue, and a way to improve game day experience.

Maybe. Maybe we'd net $400K? But that's another political issue, and it's touchy. We just "celebrated" the anniversary of the Wyoming 8, when the entire cross country team was wiped out by a student drunk driver. Very, very touchy stuff.

[Brew_Poke]

With the coming cuts to the budget the university should raise tuition to help grow the athletic budget ( with focus on football & bball). Raise it 150 per semester and you would bring in close to 4 million to help with facility upgrades, assistant salaries & ect.,also ...

Sell beer at football games & in the arena. Burman has said this will never happen but I see no issue with it. We allow open containers at 8am to tailgate, and we have a bar in the student union. It is an opportunity for revenue, and a way to improve game day experience.

No. There is a Constitutional mandate to keep tuition as near free as possible, and it absolutely should stay in place. In fact, tuition should probably be lowered to comply.

[laxwyo]

With the coming cuts to the budget the university should raise tuition to help grow the athletic budget ( with focus on football & bball). Raise it 150 per semester and you would bring in close to 4 million to help with facility upgrades, assistant salaries & ect.,also ...

Sell beer at football games & in the arena. Burman has said this will never happen but I see no issue with it. We allow open containers at 8am to tailgate, and we have a bar in the student union. It is an opportunity for revenue, and a way to improve game day experience.

No. There is a Constitutional mandate to keep tuition as near free as possible, and it absolutely should stay in place. In fact, tuition should probably be lowered to comply.

Cut half the staff and lower tuition. Sounds fun. Nothing more free than not going

[MedievalPoke]

No. There is a Constitutional mandate to keep tuition as near free as possible, and it absolutely should stay in place. In fact, tuition should probably be lowered to comply.

Indeed. Way back when I was one of Phil Robert's GA's and I remember him talking about this in his Wyoming History class. A very good policy to start from - not having the price of a good education rise faster than inflation (like at many other institutions).

[jessejames02]

...

[RedRiverPoke4]

Well I know our tuition rates is a reason why we draw many students from surrounding states... I believe more needs to be done on the sports marketing end of things.. More ways to increase fan base, become family friendly etc... Corp. Sponsorship would be a huge plus... Most of our counterparts in MWC are doing the same. Its 2015 and it feels like we are barely catching up, time to get out of the stone ages... Go Pokes..

[Spartanmike15]

The GI Bill pays for my tuition so I would be okay with an increase as long as the sports teams actually show improvement. Also, I agree with whoever said we should sell beer. None of the California schools can sell beer at any event in an on campus stadium because of Fresno St and when they threw screwdrivers at Hawaii a few years back so I miss being able to drink sporting events.

[BringBackStutzriem]

Does the fact that students always stop showing up for games midway through the year because our football program sucks so much NOT illustrate just how little benefit 95% of students receive from football/athletics in general?

It's an academic institution, and one that offers a very good, value education. But the quality of that education is only going to continue to slip if we can't retain good faculty and take care of our academic programs. Prioritizing a dismal football program that CAN'T EVEN BEAT TEAMS WITH WINNING RECORDS (again, 10 wins over Division I teams that finished the season with winning records in the last 15 years!!!) is laughable.

[Poke in Billings]

Na, don't think so.

Wyoming has and is doing well facility wise (excepting the west lower section stadium of course). I'm actually kind of stunned when I walk around campus these days.

The big experiment with athletic financing and facilities to watch is south of the border. I admire what CSU is doing, pretty gutsy. They were in a bind with their old stadium, and the timing for the new project didn't turn out too bad--the bonds sold surprisingly well. Will it buy them the program they are after and lead them to the promised land? One of the newest nicest stadiums in the country is at Minnesota. I don't see how it's improved their program's standing much though. It will be fun to watch how it turns out for CSU. Can't wait until I can go down there and watch the Pokes beat the Rams the first game Wyoming plays there. I have always maintained Wyoming has a larger and more passionate fan base than CSU.

Basketball is now on sound footing, and high hopes are on Bohl and staff getting football there.

[ELKMT]

I would have gladly paid an additional $250 a year as a part of the collective student body to help bring in the resources for a winning football team. That would be over 3 million per year and would be just 1k for 4 years. It could be viewed as an investment if the team started to win consistently the program would likely receive money games ( espn & espn 2). It could have lef to a more memorable time in school.

It is no coincidence that the programs that spend more have the success. I think raising student fees is one way to get there, although I do see the points others posted ( and I don't necessarily disagree).

[calpoke25]

Our student athletic fees are some of the lowest, if not lowest in the conference. I would support an increase in student fees if only because where else are we going to raise our budget? We can't always be at the mercy of the numbnuts and tightwads in Cheyenne, and Mead is about as good as that is going to get. We aren't apparently going to get into some big naming rights for War Memorial Stadium, we apparently aren't going to sell beer anytime soon, and our fanbase isn't exactly growing exponentially. Ticket prices can only go so high, and most think they're too high already. How else are we going to raise our budget?

An extra hundred or hundred fifty bucks is a drop in a bucket of water for the greater cost of higher education. Students pay for a lot of things they don't use, so the argument that not all students attend games or care about athletics rings hollow to me if it was a relatively small amount. Does every student use Coe Library? No, but in a small way each student pays for it.