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Show Your News PAGE All MONDAY, APRIL 4, 2005 Sports scores big bucks, others left wanting Sam Garfield Senior News Writer Next semester, the athletic department will be receiving a financial boost totaling around half a million dollars. The money is expected to come from multiple sources and will increase the overall athletic budget by more than 30 percent. Most surprisingly, the financial help came as a special bonus to the department as they did not actually,request any additional financial help. "It was a great bonus for us for that to happen," said Mike Jacobsen, UVSC's athletic director, "it's a real boost for us." The extra funding "was a proposal by student body president Jim Bassi, where part of the money is coming from student fees, part of it is coming from state appropriated dollars and President Sederburg, and part of it is coming from commitments of fund raising from athletics," said Jacobsen. The students will carry most of the burden for the funding by contributing about 40 percent of the overall amount. UVSC administration, using state appropriated funds, and the athletic department will apportion the remaining amount at around 30 percent each. Even though students will be covering 40 percent of the budget increase, Jim Bassi is sure getting more funding sources. "This was something I needed to convince my council of, and I thought 'Students shouldn't have to pay for all of this' so I broke it down." Said Bassi, who then explained how the funding would be shared. UVSC student's pay $221 each semester in student fees. Of that amount, $48.84 currently goes towards athletics. "With the increase we will be paying, after these three years are up, more of our student fees towards athletics than any other college in the state. More dollars per student will be going towards athletics than any other school," said Bassi. Bassi defended his decision by explaining that they gave the money to athletics because "in comparison to other Division I schools, they are way under-funded." UVSC has temporary division I status and is on a five-year provisional basis. "[Mike Jacobsen] gave me a three-year plan for what he would need as far as money to accomplish that," said Bassi. "The figure that he gave me was a little under 2 million dollars, and he showed me exactly what the money would be spent on." The new money will "primarily [bel going to go to scholarships and positions," said Jacobsen, "to build up our scholarship base a little bit and provide some additional administrative and coaching support." Essentially, the money will be spent on attracting new athletes who might not have otherwise considered UVSC as an option. Jacobsen has other big plans for the athletic department. "We are trying to create funding that will allow us to build a track stadium," he said, adding, "it will all be from private funding." Some questions exist regarding how the athletic department is going to pull their own weight in their funding. Currently, students are not charged to attend games, and there are not many other sources of income for the department. "Athletics has brought in some money with fundraising, but most of it comes from student fees," said Bassi. "I think Athletics is really unique because they can bring a lot of publicity and recognition to our school if we have a good program," said Bassi. Other programs, such as UVSC's nationally recognized aviation program, requested additional funds but were denied. "People judge the school by it's athletics," said Jacobsen, who added that some of the best known school like Duke University and UCLA have great academics, but are known for what they have done in athletics in the past. Jacobsen said that a great athletics program would help get the word out about high-quality programs, such as aviation, at UVSC. New degree offered Laurie Shore News Writer The department of community health at UVSC is glad to announce that it now offers a Bachelor of Science degree as well as two minors. The Board of Regents approved the degrees on Friday March 18. Specifically, the bachelors degree has three areas of emphasis, community health education, school health education (secondary education), and health services administration. The community health minors offered are community health education and school health education. The health services administration emphasis combines health and business and is one of the five-star-rated jobs in the state of Utah. That means the position is in demand, has openings, growth opportunities, and competi- tive salaries. The addition of the health services degree makes UVSC only the second school to offer such a degree in community health. Before, degree seeking students had to go to Weber State to complete their health services administration degree. Now they can remain with UVSC. "UVSC has been losing students for years because the degree could not be obtained. Now students can start and finish their community health degrees here at UVSC" said Bob Walsh, Department Chair of Community Health. The growth of the health department has been steadily occurring over the past 11 years. "In 1994 UVSC offered six health classes, we have since grown to 30 and will add only four more to fulfill the degree requirements," said Vance Hillman, professor in community health. This means that UVSC basically has had in place the courses needed for the degrees, but did not have the ability to make the degree official. Now the experienced professors can teach the courses with the goal in mind of students graduating, not just students transferring. There has been considerable student interest in the new degree. Kristie Dockstader, community health department administrative assistant said, "the phones have been ringing off the hook with interested students." Dr. Lynley Rowan, community health advisor, has been flooded with student questions and welcomes the interest. If you would like more information regarding these new degrees, contact the department of community health at 863-8651 or visit them in RE. 147. ^; *S$ ' % • Do you ' want to make your mark? , We may have a spot for you: NS ^;<-. NetXNews is accepting . apps for all positions" , Including EditoMn-Chief and Exec Producer. pick up an application ' inSC220orcall •863-8688 - .;:• V |