Should Schools Allow Student Votes on Athletic Decisions?

In case you’ve not noticed, it is coming-up on election season in the U.S. Plans and policies are being bandied-about; some surprises have arisen while the dreams of others are crushed. In reflection of our national landscape, the University of California, San Diego held a vote of its own. This past week saw the student body choose to proceed with a move for its athletic teams from NCAA Division II to Division I, contingent on an invitation by the Big West Conference.

The vote, which was conducted online, came back overwhelmingly in favor of the move. Requirements included a minimum of 20 percent undergraduate student body population participation, with 50 percent in favor of the proposal. The end results, which were announced from the patio of a local campus pizzeria (as all college announcements should be), came back 6,137 to 2,567 in favor of the change, indicating the UCSD population is ready to more than double its student athletic fees to allow for the shift.

And therein lies the concerning portion of this feel-good story of campus democracy, one that other schools must consider before holding their own future-determining student votes. The UCSD student body population voted down this same proposal before in its past, as it followed hard-upon a 79 percent increase in fees that probably made the additional athletic funding increases unpalatable. This time, however, proved to be different. Current students will impart not only a legacy of helping move athletics into a higher tier of competition, but also of making college a little bit more expensive for those who follow them.

On a larger scale, athletic departments might look at the UCSD move as an interesting way to make a tepid student body feel more enfranchised. While handing the athletic decision-making for a university to it students might be a dangerous proposition in the extreme, allowing students the appearance of involvement on certain issues could be successful. Allowing the student body population to choose the next athletic director? Probably a bad idea. Putting the new mascot choice to the students? That’s the type of high-visibility, low-stakes decision making that should be put in the hands of your enrollees (that is, until your students choose an upright, pantsless lion-bird). Doing so allows everyone to win—the students get the mascot they prefer AND feel more empowered by their tuition-receiving overlords.

Making unilateral decisions that impact the finances and experiences of students seems like the type of move that can hurt the connection between institution and enrollee. However, every administrative measure that requires consideration cannot be debated and voted-upon by the student-body population. While a move like the one UCSD is proposing might be a bit weighty for student voting, the intention is in the right place. Athletic departments and universities can benefit from involving its constituency more often as giving back power to the student body seems like an obvious and beneficial decision; choosing the right topics, however, is vital and significantly more difficult.