Several
Student Government Association (SGA) senators are planning efforts
to protest against the administration’s proposed athletic fee
increase.
“Thus far, we’ve been discussing reasons for a protest,
plans for a protest and, in the meantime, ways to get students involved
and interested in what this is about,” Allison L. Laffin, an
off-campus senator and organizer of the protest, said Monday. “Things
are starting to become more concrete; we’ve got more ideas
to pull students in.”
The ideas include a contact table in W. H. Plemmons Student Union
next week, as well as fliers to be distributed around campus.
“We’re going to have a game set up with a life-size [Vice
Chancellor for Student Development Dr. Gregory S. Blimling,] made
out of cardboard,” Laffin said. “The idea of the game
is to give students the opportunity to voice their concerns and
thoughts about any issue but specifically the fee increase, which
they can write out and pin on Blimling.”
“At the end of the week we’ll be collecting up the pieces
of paper and presenting them to Blimling so he can have some student
feedback, which he’s not sought after himself,” Laffin
said.
“We also have fliers coming out that cover the reasons we’re
having the protest, why the fee is a bad idea in general and why
this is a timely issue,” H. Dustin Bayard, an off-campus senator
and the other organizer of the protest, said Tuesday.
The protest itself is planned for 10 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 7 at the
Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting in the Broyhill Inn & Conference
Center.
“We plan to follow the members into the room and just pack
it with as many students as possible,” Laffin said. “We
hope to speak at the meeting, to show our feelings on the matter.”
“The more students physically show up, the more the [BOT] have
to say ‘no’ to, and that’s just going to make them
uncomfortable, and that’s definitely one of the goals,”
Bayard said.
The proposed athletic fee increase, which would go to fund expansions
and renovations of Kidd Brewer Stadium and other varsity athletic
facilities, has been opposed by SGA and Faculty Senate.
“I feel the administration continually turns to students to
raise fees for things we don’t support; its frustrating that
they did not seek the student input about this [as] they should
have,” Laffin said. “I feel that this is an issue some
alumni brought up who want Appalachian to be something it’s
not—a big football athletic school. I don’t see this as
changing much except wasting a lot of money that could have been
better spent.”
“Nearly everyone we talk to is against this except the athletes,”
Bayard said. “We have a statewide budget crisis, and they’re
going to freeze all other fees, so athletics will be the only part
of Appalachian that’s going to grow. Fees should go to things
that actually effect the everyday student.”
Not all senators felt the same about the proposed increase.
“I was opposed to [SGA’s] stance then and am still opposed
now,” Christian H. Greve, a senator from Justice Hall who supports
the fee increase, said Tuesday. “I think the narrow vote on
the resolution showed that there is not a consensus on this issue,
and the student body is still divided.”
Laffin emphasized this is not an official SGA protest, even though
it does have the backing of the current SGA administration.
“Certainly, nobody will be made to participate if they don’t
want to. This is our own cause; this is not specifically an SGA
protest, this is something [Bayard] and I felt strongly about, and
we’re going to seek out student support for, as we know a strong
amount is there,” Laffin said. |
