The Fresno State Academic Senate at its meeting today will consider a resolution calling for the university to reallocate money from the student body Instructionally Related Activities (IRA) fee to fund student and faculty projects instead of athletics.
A Collegian investigation in February uncovered a rapid increase in how much funding athletics receives from student fees and the state.
Students currently pay $132 each semester for the IRA fee and $92 of it go directly to athletics. Students also pay $34.50 as part of the student body fee and athletics receives $7 from it. All together students pay $99 directly to Fresno State Athletics every semester.
However, up until February, the faculty and students had no idea. The Fresno State tuition and fees website is intransparent because it does not denote exactly where each fee goes.
When the resolution was introduced at the senate meeting on April 22, members discussed the fact that The Collegian article explains each of the issues mentioned in the resolution.
The Collegian reported that there is a large gap in the amount of funding athletics receives from fees compared to the amount academic affairs receives.
Athletic funding from the state and from tuition has increased substantially since 2009, increasing by 390% and is now at $18.1 million as of the 2021-22 academic year. Funding from student fees has risen by 1,416% and is the largest increase in any Division 1 public university.
Fresno State also uses more of its ‘tuition reserve’ funds on athletics than on academics. Approximately $5.3 million was budgeted for athletics during the 2022-23 year, while only $730,000 was budgeted for academic affairs.
The resolution stems from these facts, and the Academic Senate is asking Fresno State to reorder its priorities. It also calls for more funding to be used to support a majority of the tenure-track faculty and for workloads to be realigned to meet the demands of mandated and scholarly activities.
“Fresno State should become a regional and national leader in stopping runaway athletics spending, rather than being one of the worst national examples of following the now-accepted budgetary practice that is clearly detrimental to the primary academic mission of any university,” the resolution states.
The meeting will take place from 4-5:15 p.m. in University Library Room 2206 and attendees will also be able to join via Zoom.
