Lincoln curators approve new student fee for athletics

Starting this year, full-time Lincoln University students at the Jefferson City campus will be paying an additional $10 per credit hour for a new “Student Athletic Fee.”

Willie Jude, executive director of both LU’s Foundation and philanthropy program, told the board in a cover letter to documentation explaining the proposal that the fee “is to provide financial assistance to the University to allow for improvements in areas such as: athletic facility upgrades, increasing funding for athletic scholarships, addressing transportation needs, as well as enhancing student experiences at Lincoln’s athletic events.”

Using enrollment numbers from the current, 2015-16 school year, officials estimate the new fee would raise about $544,000 each year.

The supporting paperwork showed money collected will go directly to:

• Adding synthetic turf at Dwight T. Reed. Stadium.

• Replacing lights at the stadium.

• Purchasing a new video/scoreboard for the stadium.

• Upgrading the stadium’s sound system.

• Purchasing equipment that will allow LU to host men’s and women’s track meets.

• Continuing to allow free admission for current students at all athletic event home games.

• Purchasing “give-away” items (such as T-shirts or knit caps) for distribution at home games.

• Providing transportation (on a coach bus) to a minimum of two away games, including a free ticket to those away games.

• Hosting night football games (especially in August and September).

• Continuing upkeep work on current athletics facilities.

“I think that our athletic director has a plan,” LU President Kevin Rome told the board, “and they’ve already looked at some of their priorities.”

He later told the News Tribune: “We need it for our athletic teams.

“We have underfunded all of our athletic programs. We have fewer scholarships than the NCAA allows for all of our sports.

“We don’t have adequate transportation for our sports, and we don’t have the appropriate facilities for our sports teams.”

The paperwork showed curators the fees other schools in the MIAA Conference charge their students for athletic programs — some with a flat fee ranging from $28.80 for full-time students at the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, to $155.08 at Emporia State University, Kansas.

At least three schools get funding from their Student Activities fees.

“Almost every school in our conference has a student athletic fee,” Rome noted. “Most universities that have an athletic program in the NCAA have a student athletic fee.

“We’re just catching up with the other universities.”

Marvin Teer, of Jefferson City, a 1985 LU graduate and the curators’ new board president, told colleagues before the unanimous vote: “I think it’s a wonderful idea, and it seems we’re doing nothing different from any other school.”