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The Rice Thresher
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by Olivia Allison Thresher editorial staff A referendum requesting an increase in the intramural sports fee from $10 to $15 per student was approved by the Student Association Senate Monday. The intramural sports fee will be on the ballot for the Feb. 23-28 General Elections. The fee change will take effect next year if the referendum is approved in the election. Intramural Sports Director Tina Villard presented the referendum to the senate, saying that the department was limited in the amount of money it could receive from the university. Although they have applied for grants, the current budget does not meet demands. "Our program is running out of money, and we're going slowly downhill from that," Villard, who took over intramural sports last summer, said. The IM sports division has sought funds from elsewhere - including a grant from the Rice Summer Sports Camp to replace a scoreboard in one of the auxiliary gyms. Summer Sports Camp uses its proceeds as grant money for Kinesiology Department programs. Villard said other schools have much higher intramural sports budgets. For example, Harvard University has a fee of $100 per student. Director of Student Activities Mona Hicks said the money from the fee increase would be used primarily for increasing wages for referees who officiate IM games. Hicks said increasing officials' wages and getting them better trained would improve students' safety. "We'd like to pay them a little more than beans and give them a little more responsibility and understanding about their job," she said. Officials are currently paid around $7 per hour. Hicks said the additional money would also be used to replace basic equipment, such as volleyball nets. The $10 per student fee was created by a referendum that passed in 1993. Prior to that, students were required to pay a fee for each intramural sport in which they participated. Hicks said she did not know why a referendum was required to increase the fee, but said Barbara Eudey, assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs told her a referendum was necessary after Eudey looked at the 1993 referendum. Hicks said she does not think requiring students to vote for IM sports fee increases is the best way to approach funding the program. She said the department would always inform students before fees were increased, regardless of whether a vote was required. If the IM fee were increasing, even if it wasn't done by vote, Hicks said the division would be responsible for telling students about it. "But I just don't want it to be measured by the election vote," she said. "I think this method is not the best method." Two-thirds of the voters in the election must approve a referendum for it to pass and at least 20 percent of the undergraduate population must vote in the election.
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