Re. the JMU athletics fee ... well there is a difference. While JMU is not a rich kids school, a lot of the families are solidly middle class. They can afford fees which help keep their kids well-entertained while at college.
As Wood pointed out, a lot of Sac State students are first in their families to go to college and struggle financially. During advising, we encourage them to limit their outside job(s) to no more than 20 hours per week. But so many work more to pay the bills. I wonder if your typical JMU student is working 25 hours per week with a 15-unit academic schedule and family obligations on top of that.
A $75 or $100 fee increase may not seem like much, but it is to many of our students. And in the aggregate, well $100 times 30,000 students is $3 million. Dr. Wood wants that money for his purposes. If you’re on campus, you know that most students don’t want what he wants; they want that $3 million going to getting their classes back.
It's hard to say who's right. It's at least relevant that State athletics, even before those fee increases, was highly, highly subsidized, estimated at 84%, one of the highest subsidization rates around. That’s California tax dollars and student fees at work. A pretty good deal for the athletic department.
Typical classes this semester - for students who are able to get them - have a 40 student to 1 instructor ratio. No TA’s, no graders. Football has at most 4 players for each coach. Check out the Sac State sideline next game; the number of coaches (a “swarm” per a local sportswriter) is incredible, the highest paid staff ($2.7 million before incentives) in FCS by far. You can’t really fault Brennan Marion. In an interview he said, “I kept asking … and Mark Orr and Dr. Wood kept saying yes.” It makes quite an impression, even for someone like myself, a former D1 athlete who loves his sports. And the students notice all this.
It's interesting times. Dr. Wood is high energy and charismatic. He would face so much less anger and resentment on campus if he stopped saying to the public that the students support this FBS push and that he has no capacity for redirecting future Category II fees.
