As students vote on increasing athletics fees for all incoming freshmen enrolled for and after Fall 2022, UTRGV officials, faculty and students recruited to spread university propaganda in favor of the increase, appeal to greed. They ask, “What do you have to lose? Someone else will pay for it, anyway. Just vote yes.”
UTRGV Senior Vice President Maggie Hinojosa, who oversees student affairs and strategic enrollment, and Vice President and Director of Athletics Chasse Conque, made this appeal, delivered presentations in Edinburg and Brownsville on the proposed fee increase, which primarily funds college football but also women’s swim and dive teams, marching bands, and expands the cheer squad.
In a recent article in The Rider, two faculty members weighed in. Kip Austin Hinton, Faculty Senate president-elect, expressed misgivings about the proposal and responded to a question raised by our colleague Jonathan Salinas in Brownsville. Is burdening future generations who have no vote in the matter ethical? Hinton reportedly said, “As long as the student body is thinking in the best interest of those future students,” then he does not think it is unethical. This only begs and rephrases the question to: Is financially burdening future generations in their best interest?
College of Fine Arts Dean Steven Block, who also acknowledged shortcomings in the proposal, falsely dismissed football as “a very small portion of Athletics.” For a detailed article on the actual costs of college football and why college football might eventually proceed with or without student approval, visit unete956.org and see “UTRGV College Football.”
A recent ad campaign posted to YouTube, featuring students Liz Ortiz, Dariel Arostegui and Zack Borjas, strongly emphasizes “only future students will pay” as repeated in each segment. This gimmick was also used by Cameron County officials, who recently and unsuccessfully asked voters to allow “tourist taxes” to be used in order to build a sports stadium. County officials stressed that “only outsiders would pay for it.”
Working-class students, including Juan Antonio Almaguer and Bruno Rosales, spoke up in Brownsville and Edinburg in disagreement with this proposal, citing cost of living and academic inequality.
Semi and professional sports are money-makers for stadium owners, contractors, bankers, restaurant owners, merchandise vendors, etc. College football alone was rated a $4 billion industry by Fortune in 2020. Rather than put the up-front investment for such ventures, capitalist investors across the country, and now the Rio Grande Valley, have found it more profitable and less risky for taxpayers to do that for them.
At the same time, the student debt crisis across the country has hit all-time high costs at UTRGV. Since its founding, tuition and fees have more than doubled as a consequence of “locking in” tuition for current students and raising costs for future students (sound familiar?), resembling even more a “high-end university” than the affordable Hispanic-serving institution it was supposed to be and which both legacy institutions once were. This, despite limited scholarships such as the Tuition Advantage, falsely advertised as universal by recent media coverage.
This “locked-in” tuition scheme has created “two-tiered” tuition and fees, similar to that which bosses at John Deere, Exxon and elsewhere try imposing on striking workers who have refused to sell out and burden future generations with less pay and fewer benefits in “two-tiered” contracts. Will UTRGV students stand up for the next generation and community and say enough is enough?
Jonathan Salinas, UTPA first-year intern Fall 2013, social and behavioral sciences senator representative Spring 2014, former UTPA Senator at Large Spring (2014-2015), UTB/UTPA SGA Constitutional Convention Spring 2015
Mauricio Lomeli Martinez, former UTPA SGA Senator at Large (2014-15)
Denisse Molina-Castro, former UTRGV SGA President (2016-2017) and Brownsville Vice President (2015-2016)
CLARIFICATION: Salinas was a first-year intern Fall 2013, social and behavioral sciences senator representative Spring 2014, former UTPA Senator at Large Spring (2014-2015), UTB/UTPA SGA Constitutional Convention Spring 2015
