2008 Woodie Awards
Our money, honey, supports everything from politics to sports
Christy Mullins
Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: Opinion
Note: There was an error in this week's printed column about student fees.
We spent $473, not $50, on the athletic department this semester. Read below on how that balances out, still, to only 9 percent of our student fees.
Sorry, guys.
Christy Mullins
News Editor
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I don't have to ask twice whether or not students care about money.
Last week, we received an anonymous letter at The Johnsonian, chastising us for not investigating the athletic budget this year. The writer wanted to know if the basketball team's costly trips to other universities came out of the pockets of people who don't care about sports.
As News Editor, I'm sorry I haven't done this sooner.
Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, I put on my good clothes and sat among Winthrop's Board of Trustees.
I was the youngest person in the Old Stone House, and I had to do math.
I did this for you, concerned non-athlete, and for the rest of your classmates who pay tuition and fees each semester.
(Hint: The Cashier's Office also breaks this down conveniently online. In any case, I've synthesized it for you, since that is my job.)
Student fees are categorized four ways. By paying them, we support construction, health services, educational upkeep and, yes, student activities.
Imagine a very large maroon and gold piggy bank, to which we all give up a portion of our beer money to jog around the West Center together and join important organizatons (for your sake, I hope you're a member of at least one).
This semester, we gave Winthrop $5,105 in total student fees, and only about 9 percent of that money funded the athletic department, a grand total of $473.
Sure, that's $473 you or I could have spent on organic groceries or obscure literature, but as DiGiorgio's lady of the word, Rebecca Masters, put it to me earlier this week, Winthrop can't please everyone.
Another side note: the athletic department earns a lot of its own income with game fees and ticket sales revenue, so you may want to sit the bench on that argument.
Think about it this way, Anonymous. You also spent $94 last semester on health services. We all did, but we didn't all get the flu or break legs during ski class (apologies to Sunny, our Entertainment Editor, who did both of those things).
Let's all extend our apologies to students who don't read The Johnsonian. By paying a lump sum of $541 in student activity fees, they're chipping in (very modestly, I have to say) for us to print our paper each week.
To find out how your student fees may be allocated next semester, visit my story on page 2.
If I don't spell it out enough for you this week, feel free to send me another anonymous letter (but please, no Comic Sans this time).
We spent $473, not $50, on the athletic department this semester. Read below on how that balances out, still, to only 9 percent of our student fees.
Sorry, guys.
Christy Mullins
News Editor
-----------
I don't have to ask twice whether or not students care about money.
Last week, we received an anonymous letter at The Johnsonian, chastising us for not investigating the athletic budget this year. The writer wanted to know if the basketball team's costly trips to other universities came out of the pockets of people who don't care about sports.
As News Editor, I'm sorry I haven't done this sooner.
Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, I put on my good clothes and sat among Winthrop's Board of Trustees.
I was the youngest person in the Old Stone House, and I had to do math.
I did this for you, concerned non-athlete, and for the rest of your classmates who pay tuition and fees each semester.
(Hint: The Cashier's Office also breaks this down conveniently online. In any case, I've synthesized it for you, since that is my job.)
Student fees are categorized four ways. By paying them, we support construction, health services, educational upkeep and, yes, student activities.
Imagine a very large maroon and gold piggy bank, to which we all give up a portion of our beer money to jog around the West Center together and join important organizatons (for your sake, I hope you're a member of at least one).
This semester, we gave Winthrop $5,105 in total student fees, and only about 9 percent of that money funded the athletic department, a grand total of $473.
Sure, that's $473 you or I could have spent on organic groceries or obscure literature, but as DiGiorgio's lady of the word, Rebecca Masters, put it to me earlier this week, Winthrop can't please everyone.
Another side note: the athletic department earns a lot of its own income with game fees and ticket sales revenue, so you may want to sit the bench on that argument.
Think about it this way, Anonymous. You also spent $94 last semester on health services. We all did, but we didn't all get the flu or break legs during ski class (apologies to Sunny, our Entertainment Editor, who did both of those things).
Let's all extend our apologies to students who don't read The Johnsonian. By paying a lump sum of $541 in student activity fees, they're chipping in (very modestly, I have to say) for us to print our paper each week.
To find out how your student fees may be allocated next semester, visit my story on page 2.
If I don't spell it out enough for you this week, feel free to send me another anonymous letter (but please, no Comic Sans this time).
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