Booster clubs and tuition breaks
From today's paper:
RALEIGH - Women's volleyball isn't the first thing that comes to mind in the discussion of big-time college athletics and full-ride scholarships.But for UNCG, it's one of the sports that may be caught up in an argument over whether taxpayers should subsidize the efforts of athletics boosters to recruit athletes at UNC system campuses.
Rep. Pricey Harrison , a Greensboro Democrat, is leading the charge to repeal a 2005 budget provision that allows athletics programs to get more athletes for their scholarship dollar.
Under that law, booster clubs who give full scholarships to athletes from outside North Carolina pay the in-state tuition rate. For the current academic year, that's a difference of $11,494 for students attending UNCG and $15,206.24 for students at the Chapel Hill campus.
"It has been extremely positive legislation for us, especially for our women's sports," said Nelson Bobb, UNCG's athletics director . "In volleyball we went from a bottom-dweller to a top competitor. In two of the past three years we played for the championship in the tournament."
Click here for the full story.
You can read the bill here and find contact information for Harrison here.
Summaries of its impact on schools and the state general fund are here and here.
Comments (3)
To report abuse of the comment feature on this site, please use the feedback form at the bottom of any page.
Athletes get in state tuition. They sell tickets to folks like me. We drive to the game, buy hot dogs, popcorn and sodas.
They bring income into state.
The same folks fight to give illegals in state tuition.
They get all kinds of welfare. Drive around with no car insurance. Keep the jails full. Take jobs away from Americans and work for lower wages.
That can only make sense to a nut.
Of course Harrison has proved many times , she fully qualified.
Posted on February 15, 2009 10:06 AM
Not to mention all that TV money.
Posted on February 15, 2009 10:08 AM
NC House Bill 83 should be passed.
Even better, the UNC System should
fire all its coaches and save the
taxpayers over 200 million every
year. Plus, the schools could lower
tuition and fees since the students
would not have to pay the professional
athletes fees.
College sports is the biggest taxpayer and
student rip-off around.
Posted on February 15, 2009 2:44 PM