Two UTRGV faculty members express their thoughts on the Athletics Fee Referendum

Since they first announced a proposal to increase the UTRGV Athletics fee, two university officials have presented details of the plan to several student, staff and faculty organizations.

The Rider contacted Kip Austin Hinton, Faculty Senate president-elect, and Steven Block, dean of the College of Fine Arts, both of whom attended at least one of the presentations given by sponsors Maggie Hinojosa, senior vice president for Strategic Enrollment and Student Affairs, and Chasse Conque, vice president and director of Athletics.

“I know there are other things involved in it, but football is the key piece and is the motivation,” Hinton said. “UTRGV has been looking at creating football since at least 2017. There were signs that it was seriously being considered, at least back in January of this year. I have mixed feelings, I will say, about this.”

Hinton, who is a fan of college football, said he understands the appeal of adding a football program to the university, but he and other faculty members share concerns that mostly involve issues of safety.

“It is well documented in research that football is the most dangerous sport, and that it is the sport that creates the most extreme injuries, the most traumatic brain injuries, the most concussions,” he said. 

He said the other concern is that there is only a small number of football programs that are directly able to bring in money while the rest lose it or break even.

“And one thing I’ve noticed speaking to UTRGV employees and students is that there seems to be a widespread belief that football is going to be profitable, and if you look at a school like UT San Antonio, they started a football team 10 years ago,” Hinton said. “Approximately 10 years ago, I don’t’ remember the exact year. And they are just now becoming a good football team. But they are still losing money and they lose money every year.”

However, Hinton said that one good thing is that the current plan for UTRGV is to compete in the championship division instead of the bowl division, making it less burdensome financially.

“That makes me think it might be a better plan than, for example, what the plan that UTSA followed,” he said. “We have to keep in mind that the [Rio Grande Valley] has a total population that is a lot smaller than the total population in greater San Antonio or Houston or Dallas Fort Worth area. Right. It’s just a different scale and we should not expect it to look the same.”

Under the proposal sponsored by Hinojosa and Conque, students would pay an additional $11.25 per credit hour, capped at 12 hours, to fund the establishment of a football program, women’s swimming and diving teams, two marching bands and two spirit programs. 

In September, the Student Government Association voted to approve the Athletics Fee Referendum application. Students will vote on the proposal to increase the athletic fee Nov. 8 through 10. 

As for the safety concerns, he said a lot of faculty at UTRGV in the division of Health Affairs are more aware of the patterns of injuries created from sports than he is and although football is not the only dangerous sport, this is an issue that has come up at many universities with large football programs.

“That we are an institution promoting higher learning and increasing knowledge and expanding the power of our brains,” Hinton said. “And this is a sport that may not fit into that mission. That was specifically mentioned to me by another faculty member, and I hadn’t thought of it that way before, but I think it is a valid point for us all to think about, even those of us who love football.”

He also said that, thankfully, safety measures have improved a lot since his father’s time as a football player and it gives him hope that the sport could become safer.

“Which is something that, I know a lot of people are concerned about, and Chasse Conque shared his interest also in making this as safe as possible, but it will never be completely safe.”

According to Hinton, another concern raised by faculty from the College of Fine Arts is whether the university has a large enough student population, especially music majors, to create two full marching bands.

“So this is something that I think has not quite been resolved yet,” he said. “Does it mean we’re going to have two small bands? What does that look like? And also, an issue that goes back to the very founding of UTRGV, which is this idea that we have two main campuses, Brownsville and Edinburg.”

Hinton said that he appreciates the idea that the Intercollegiate Athletics Department plans to hold one football game per year in Brownsville or near Brownsville, but it highlights the fact that every other game is going to be in Edinburg, just like in all the other sports.

“And even if you put a marching band in Brownsville, there’s really no way to interpret this as fair or equitable,” Hinton said. “And it’s something I would like UTRGV to figure out. Maybe we could take the football approach and it’s extended to other sports. … What if there were one soccer, one men’s soccer match per season in Brownsville, one women’s soccer match per season in Brownsville, one women’s volleyball match in Brownsville each season, right? Maybe that idea. It’s my favorite part of the proposal. Maybe that idea could be a way to really bring Brownsville students into the UTRGV Athletics program and in a better way.”

Asked about a student’s question during the SGA Brownsville Town Hall regarding whether it was ethical for current students to make a decision on the Athletic fee increase when it would only affect future students, Hinton replied that he understands why someone would be concerned about that, but as long as the student body is thinking in the best interest of those future students, then he does not think it is unethical.

“I think we each have to weigh all of these factors,” he said. “We have to go into this with our eyes open about what this could mean, including for things like money.”

Hinton also noted the perspective of sportscaster Bob Costas, who believes that football is going to have difficulty continuing into the upcoming decades. 

“Not that it’s ending in the next few years, but that he says there is the beginning of a cultural shift,” he said. “That if there are more parents who don’t want their 12-year-olds to play peewee football, then that’s going to be fewer high school players, which is going to mean fewer players who are going to be trying to play at the college level, which will mean fewer players for the NFL. I don’t know if this prediction will come true, but it is something to think about.”

College of Fine Arts Dean Block believes the student fee portion of the funding is only a small part of what it is about and it is less important to the University of Texas System Board of Regents than the idea of students supporting a richer campus life.

“That actually is what the vote is really about,” Block said. “Not how to pay for a very small portion of Athletics, which is beyond the football team.”

He said that when discussing a budget for the marching band with Athletics and a consultant, he gave them a preliminary budget of $300,000 annually that may increase over time.

“If you have a 200-member marching band, you need 200 instruments, you need 200 uniforms and those change every year,” Block said. “You need to pay for the shows that are going on, how those are designed. There are all sorts of things that go into it. Field maintenance, locker storage places, things like that, all of which goes into a marching band.”

He said that in addition to this, there is the unusual circumstance of being two campuses. 

“So there has to be equal access, both equal access and equal opportunity for the students on both campuses,” Block said. “That’s a given. And how that gets worked out, that’s going to be the School of Music’s. … That’s going to be a tough thing. So it may involve another position, another faculty position on the Brownsville campus, and maybe it may change the way we look at bands.”

Asked about a comment made at the Brownsville SGA town hall by a graphic and web design student quoting him from a College of Fine Arts town hall, Block said he was not referring to the college but the School of Art in Brownsville.

“The School of Art in Brownsville is in a leased building, Rusteberg, which is falling apart, and we don’t even own the building and my point to them is that the School of Art has been built in Brownsville but not strongly enough, and it’s difficult because art requires a really good facility,” he said. “But that’s a completely separate issue. If I used the words ‘Hanging on by a thread’ it would have only been applied to the School of Art, so you gotta remember the difference, which I think a lot of people confuse.”

He said that this is something he has complained about frequently and the college is not keeping anything hidden.

“It’s a real mess and it’s problematic, because we don’t own it and that means the university can’t make any changes to it without asking [Texas Southmost College], who owns the building, to do it and that, as you might guess … we’re not talking about immediate changes,” he said. 

Block also said that when it comes to the referendum, faculty sometimes also only understands the “small picture” rather than the “big picture” and are no different than students.

He said having the community’s support and interest, this will eventually help fund things like photography and other things because the community has that pride in the institution. 

“That’s a difficult thing to explain,” he said. “You have to have a long vision. These things are going to take years to occur.”

Block reiterated that people need to understand the referendum is much more than a question of supporting student fees, and it is really a question of supporting growth, culture, campus life and carving out an identity for UTRGV that goes beyond now.

“That’s the future that’s being voted on and it may not be the time that students want to do this and that’s OK but the reason this is being pushed, I think, maybe this is one of the things that isn’t clear: The regents only meet every two years,” he said. “They’re meeting in February. So, when I was first come to by Chasse [Conque] and Maggie [Hinojosa] in either in August or September, but I think August, there wasn’t a whole lot of time. But if the student referendum isn’t passed, then probably we’re talking at least another two years down the road and then it takes another two years to develop plans and all that so … and, as you’re hearing me express, it takes a long time to develop plans and develop the right plans.

“So, again, I think the most important point is to realize that this referendum has much more to do with a greater campus life of the students that attend UTRGV in the future than it does center in on a fee.”