Each UConn student pays $2000/year for sports

[sun]

A CT Mirror article states that UConn students pay over $2000/year to fund intercollegiate athletic programs.
And since students need to borrow the money it becomes student loan debt.
With CT having a budget surplus, why shouldn't the state of CT pay the costs through the general fund?
UConn athletics has a deficit of over $40 million and are cutting some sports.
It would make a lot of sense to find a new method for funding UConn sports.

Cut NCAA sports, reduce student debt and enhance the value of UConn degrees

University of Connecticut students pay over $2,000 each year solely for the privilege of having intercollegiate sports on campus. Unfortunately, these students do not realize any educational benefits for this high-cost penalty. Students, trustees, and UConn’s president need to consider the...

ctmirror.org

 

[ScottVib]

To be clear it's not a news article, it's an editorial. It's also unsurprisingly an academic, who feels strongly that dollars attributed to the athletic department would immediately go to academics. They generally dismiss the thought that athletics provide any boost in student interest or the quality of students an institution attracts. That said UConn's growth from safety school to destination school demonstrates precisely the kind of correlation that most supporters of athletics lean into with athletics providing a key boost in school enrollment.

Laurence I. Peterson is Dean Emeritus, College of Science & Mathematics, Kennesaw State University, and former Vice President of Research with BASF Corporation and Celanese Corporation. He received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale University. He recently authored two articles on higher education titled “Is College Football an Expensive Luxury for Many Universities”

 

[sun]

To be clear it's not a news article, it's an editorial.

I didn't post about the issue to raise the editorial issues against UConn athletics, but rather as a reference for the amount that each student pays.
I had read about the student fee in other news articles such as the one about the athletic dept. deficit below.
The budget document shows that student fees provided $6.5 million in AD revenues.
If a law were passed making it illegal to make students pay those fees, UConn would be able to find the money to replace it with in a heartbeat.
I'm not against sports, but not pleased with how it's being partly funded by students taking out loans and by their parents.
And now the students are suffering even more due to some sports being discontinued.
It's a shame that the student fee is being assessed for what amounts to a lot of media promotion for the benefit of the state of CT and UConn.
There is certainly a lot spin off economic benefits generated by UConn's athletic events that are held in the state.
The entire state & UConn benefits, and should provide UConn with the money for sports.

"3 Student Fees $6,534,945 Input student fees assessed and restricted for support of intercollegiate athletics"

UConn athletic budget deficit increases to $43.5 million

The deficit is slightly higher than the $42.3 million from the year before and remains...

www.nhregister.com

 

[SubbaBub]

No, because that's not how budgets work.

 

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

What is the monetary value of season tickets for every sport?

 

[sun]

"...the university anticipates saving $10 million a year by ending four sports programs that 124 students currently participate in. Those sports are men’s cross country, tennis, swimming and diving and women’s rowing."

UConn passes massive, unbalanced budget while grappling with fiscal impact of COVID-19

Depending on how much impact the coronavirus has on enrollment, the deficit could be $47 to $129 million, officials say.

ctmirror.org

"For the Storrs and regional campuses, the University anticipates receiving $208 million in FY22 under its annual state block grant; and $201 million in partial reimbursement from the state to help cover fringe benefit costs for about 47 percent of its employees, with the University covering the rest.

Overall, state funds are expected make up about 26% of the Storrs/regional revenue in FY22,"

UConn Adopts Budgets for Fiscal Year 2022 - UConn Today

UConn adopted a budget for Fiscal Year 2022, balanced in part because of federal aid stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

today.uconn.edu

 

[Kolumbo]

It's a shame that the student fee is being assessed for what amounts to a lot of media promotion for the benefit of the state of CT and UConn.

I am not sure about the veracity of the opinions or the $2,000 fee. Nevertheless

A shame? No, it's a bargain! UCONN has progressed by leaps and bounds in both its academic and athletic profiles over the past several decades, and it's hardly coincidental. It's great for UCONN, for CT, for residents, for students, for student-athletes, for educators, for local businesses. It's pretty much a win-win-win-win. . . .

Bottom line, UCONN isn't easy to get into anymore. Students can choose to go to more expensive or less expensive colleges so the fees aren't an issue.

 

[CL82]

The budget document shows that student fees provided $6.5 million in AD revenues.
If a law were passed making it illegal to make students pay those fees, UConn would be able to find the money to replace it with in a heartbeat

So you are saying you prefer making up this $6.5 million in a less transparent fashion? I’m not sure how that benefits anyone.

 

[sun]

So you are saying you prefer making up this $6.5 million in a less transparent fashion? I’m not sure how that benefits anyone.

This article describes how most schools hide the fee so that students won't see it itemized on their fee bill.
Then after students learn about it from an article, they end up hating sports because of the way that it's being secretly funded.
The colleges that aren't being transparent about it invite criticism about how wasteful their sports programs are.
There's public schools that won't even provide the fee information to NBC News under FOI laws which is a complete lack of transparency.

College students may pay thousands in athletic fees and not know it

NBC News found that college students are paying a rising cost, sometimes thousands of dollars, to support athletic programs — fees that don't always appear on their tuition bills.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[CL82]

This article describes how most schools hide the fee so that students won't see it itemized on their fee bill.
Then after students learn about it from an article, they end up hating sports because of the way that it's being secretly funded.
The colleges that aren't being transparent about it invite criticism about how wasteful their sports programs are.
There's public schools that won't even provide the fee information to NBC News under FOI laws which is a complete lack of transparency.

College students may pay thousands in athletic fees and not know it

NBC News found that college students are paying a rising cost, sometimes thousands of dollars, to support athletic programs — fees that don't always appear on their tuition bills.

www.nbcnews.com

You might wanna read it again, because I’m not sure it actually says that. He did give examples of one or two students who did not follow sports and didn’t think they should have to pay for them. I guarantee you on any campus I could find say one or two engineering students who didn’t feel that it was right that a portion of their tuition went to support liberal arts or philosophy departments.

I’ll bet you but I can find at least one or two people in your town who thinks a portion of their taxes shouldn’t go to support a library, or the fire department, or even the police department. It is a pretty fundamental element of human nature that people don’t like to pay for things that they don’t have an immediate use for. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t have value.

 

[huskymedic]

I didn't post about the issue to raise the editorial issues against UConn athletics, but rather as a reference for the amount that each student pays. I had read about the student fee in other news articles such as the one about the athletic dept. deficit below.

The budget document shows that student fees provided $6.5 million in AD revenues.

UConn athletic budget deficit increases to $43.5 million

The deficit is slightly higher than the $42.3 million from the year before and remains...

www.nhregister.com

Divide the $6.5m in student fees you note above by the number of undergraduates (18,917)...

UConn's athletic deficit rose to $47.2 million in 2021

STORRS, Conn. (AP) — UConn's athletic department reported Tuesday that its budget deficit rose from from $43.5 million to $47.2 million in the 2021 fiscal year, the result of pandemic-related hits to ticket sales and other revenue.

apnews.com

"UConn’s athletic department reported Tuesday that its budget deficit rose from from $43.5 million to $47.2 million in the 2021 fiscal year, the result of pandemic-related hits to ticket sales and other revenue. The school released the figures as part of its athletic department’s annual fiscal report to the NCAA and covers the time period between July 2020 and June 2021. The gap will be made up through $42.6 million in institutional support and $4.6 million in student fees, according to the report."

 

[sun]

The AP article states that "The gap will be made up through $42.6 million in institutional support and $4.6 million in student fees, according to the report."

The $4.6 million above only seems to be in reference to the deficit.

The question is where does the rest of the money to pay off the deficit come from if not from student fees?
One of the sources that I posted said that 26% of UConn funding comes from the state.
After the state money is applied, that leaves 74% of the $43-$47 mil deficit to be paid from what other sources?
Does UConn use accounting gimmicks, state money, or other money derived from student tuition, or a combination of each?
There's not enough information to make a conclusion whether any of the rest of the deficit money is being paid for with student tuition funds or not.
But I think it can be surmised that it includes some and maybe even a lot.

UConn is claiming a deficit based in part on payments/expenses to itself for athlete tuition (scholarships). when in reality the scholarships don't cost them much, only a very small percentage of what they claim to cost.
They're using creative accounting where funds are transferred from one side of the ledger to the other, without much of any actual additional expense being incurred by the university for letting athletes attend classes that are already being held.
The dining halls probably throw more food away then the athletes actually eat with their meal plans.

As I previously said, UConn can come up with the money to replace student athletic fees in a heartbeat through their creative accounting methods if they really needed to.
UConn is raising tuition about $700 per year and they probably receive annual increases in state funds and grants too.
The simple fact that UConn is coming up with $42.6 million shows that they have the money.
Some of it most likely comes from tuition and they seem to have a lack of transparency.
Divide $42.6 million by 19,000 students.

The New Haven Register article stated:
"Overall expenses were $78.8 million, slightly down from the $80.9 million the year before."

 

[huskymedic]

The AP article states that "The gap will be made up through $42.6 million in institutional support and $4.6 million in student fees, according to the report."

The $4.6 million above only seems to be in reference to the deficit.

The question is where does the rest of the money to pay off the deficit come from if not from student fees?

One of the sources that I posted said that 26% of UConn funding comes from the state.After the state money is applied, that leaves 74% of the $43-$47 mil deficit to be paid from what other sources?

Does UConn use accounting gimmicks, state money, or other money derived from student tuition, or a combination of each?

There's not enough information to make a conclusion whether any of the rest of the deficit money is being paid for with student tuition funds or not.

But I think it can be surmised that it includes some and maybe even a lot.

This is for 2020 (latest year in the Knight Report which is the source that the person who wrote the Editorial references). There is a lag in the financial reporting.

University of Connecticut | College Athletics Database

Go to the tab that references “Where the money comes from” to answer your question (highlighted above).

 

[sun]

This is for 2020 (latest year in the Knight Report which is the source that the person who wrote the Editorial references). There is a lag in the financial reporting.

University of Connecticut | College Athletics Database

Go to the tab that references “Where the money comes from” to answer your question (highlighted above).

The Institutional/Gov't support is a curtain that we can't see behind to know where the money comes from.
The New Haven Register budget summary has the same info and actually specifies that it includes "$0 direct state or other gov't support."

It doesn't answer the question where UConn came up with the $38.51 million.
That just means that it's UConn's revenues, presumably from student tuition unless it can be shown that it came from somewhere else.
Basically it's sneaky-obvious that it's their money to use any way that they want in order to solve the deficit.
By doing it this way they don't need to declare the true amount of student funds being used to fund sports.