UCI Students Will Vote on Fee Increase

A proposal to help fund athletic scholarships at UC Irvine by raising student fees will be voted on by students May 10-13 after it was approved this week by the student legislative council.

The referendum will offer three choices for quarterly fee increases--$33, $19 and $13--as well as an opportunity to vote against any increase.

Approval of the $33 fee would bring back baseball, which was dropped in 1992, and introduce women’s water polo and another as-yet-undecided women’s sport. The $19 fee would enable Irvine to fully fund scholarships in every current sport and add women’s water polo. The $13 fee would fully fund every current sport except track and field.

If passed, the fees would begin in the fall of 2000. Student fees for the 1999 spring quarter are $1,290.50.

Irvine ranks last in the Big West Conference in scholarship money and in the bottom 6% among all NCAA Division I schools.

A scholarship to Irvine is worth about $10,000 for a California resident and about $17,000 for an out-of-state resident.