As the author of a recent GPSC resolution in opposition to yet another proposed $20 increase in the athletic fee, I found last Thursday’s article on the issue woefully lacking. The issues behind student opposition to this proposed increase did not reach the public. In the hopes of rectifying the situation, I present the following facts:1) Last summer, the administration presented a proposal to increase the annual student athletic fee by $20 per year for four years, starting with FY 1999 (which begins July1).

2) Undergraduate and graduate students strongly opposed the proposal.

3) The presidents of USG and GPSC, without consulting their legislative bodies or even student leaders closest to the issues, made an agreement with the chancellor of SIUC and the president of SIU. They agreed to support the $20 increase for FY 1999 and the administration agreed to study, with full input from the student body, the need for future increases. A discussion of the need for certain programs to exist at all was to be part of this study.

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4) This promised study never happened. Discussing the various philosophies on the issue with a select group of student leaders doesn’t count.

5) There is a 3 percent cap on the annual increase of the overall expense of education (tuition and fees combined) at SIUC. This is a good thing. However, it also means that of the total amount our tuition and fees will rise each year, more than 20 percent would go to the Athletic Department.

6) Other departments on campus desperately need that money.

7) About two weeks ago, GPSC passed a resolution which opposed the proposed increase in the fee for FY 2000 and expressed lingering opposition to the $20 fee increase scheduled to take effect this fall. The resolution passed unanimously. This new proposal from the Athletic Department has not yet reached the chancellor.

If and when it does, I hope he will remember what he told all of us last fall. For those of you didn’t pick up a Daily Egyptian that day, he said he had been studying the Athletic Department’s budget and assured us he wouldn’t need to ask for the previously projected $20.

I hope GPSC’s resolution helped remind him of that. That’s why I introduced it. It’s also the reason I wrote this letter.