The San Francisco State University athletics department has proposed a $32 per-semester increase to the existing Athletics Instructionally Related Activities fee in the hopes of saving programs on the brink of elimination.
As reported by Lourence Alturino of Golden Gate Express, an SFSU student publication, SFSU students currently pay $68 per semester and $4 in the summer for athletics. The proposal is to bump the per-semester fee to $100 starting this fall. Following the upcoming school year, a $25 increase will be implemented each year for the next three years. Then, a 5% increase over time. The IRA-Athletics fee is mandatory and covered by financial aid programs.
According to Brandon Davis, interim athletics director, if no changes are made to the IRA-Athletics fee, the program will lose its general fund money and be cut from the university after the 2025-26 school year.
“This amount, which was last increased more than 15 years ago, no longer covers the escalating costs of maintaining a competitive and inclusive NCAA Division II program,” said Davis, as reported by Golden Gate Express. “To keep the show going, we have got to be able to sustain ourselves moving forward. The student fee increase is the only way to do it in this short amount of time.”
Last month, SFSU announced it was cutting three non-revenue sports — baseball, men's soccer and women's indoor track and field — in an effort to save $1 million.
Related: San Francisco State University Cuts Three 'Money-Losing' Athletic Programs
Alturino reported Friday that students would be able to vote on the proposed increase through a survey that will be "released to their emails in the coming days." The survey will consist of nine questions, with its final question asking if students are in favor of the fee increase.
“The students are the ones making a change,” Student-Athlete Advisory Committee president Kelsey Burrus, a junior defender on the Gators women's soccer team, said. “The legislators and those making the decision will not listen to faculty and staff, they’re going to listen to the students and the athletes. So, we need to come together as one, as a student body and make a change.”
"In a time when tuition is already increasing at the university, extra fees may scare students away from approving the athletic department’s proposal," wrote Alturino, adding that Davis asks students to look at the broader picture.
“At some point, we also have to invest in what’s important at San Francisco State," Davis said. "What does the university want to look like? We talk so much about how we’ve been known as a commuter campus for so long, but we don’t want to be that anymore. We want people to have something to do on campus. If we’re not here on the weekends, what is? What fills that void? And for an extra $32, we provide an awful lot.”
