Future of Irvine Athletics to Be Decided at Ballot Box

Mike Lawrence, UC Irvine’s top golfer and chief lobbyist, hesitated when asked about his workload. His recent golf game, though, spoke volumes.

Lawrence had a woeful performance during the three-day Big West Conference tournament last week. And it wasn’t the high winds.

“The wind was actually a blessing,” said Lawrence, who shot 11-over-par 227 to finish 11th. “It got me focused. I’ve had a lot of stuff on my mind.”

Nothing too crucial, merely the future of Irvine athletics.

Lawrence is a member of the athletic advisory committee trying to pass a student referendum to help fund athletic scholarships.

Voting Monday

Starting Monday, Irvine students will begin voting whether to raise student fees and end the buddy-can-you-spare-a-dime athletic budget that has existed since the state budget crunch of 1992.

Students can vote “no,” or pick one of three quarterly fee hikes ($13, $19, $33), with most of the money going to fund athletic scholarships. The fee would go into effect in the fall of 2000.

The minimum fee increase would fund every sport except track and field. The maximum would fund all sports, bring back baseball--which was dropped in 1992--add women’s water polo and one other women’s sport to be determined.

This, though, isn’t so much a referendum about money as it is about apathy. Administrators, coaches and athletes will know if students really care about Anteater athletics.

“We have put it in the hands of the students,” said senior basketball player Brian Scoggin, who is part of the committee that is pushing for the referendum. “They can’t complain about the athletics anymore.”

Basically, the fate of the athletic department hinges on the outcome of this three-day voting period.

“If one of these [fees] doesn’t pass, it’s going to be dog-eat-dog for money around here,” one coach said.

The need for the money is obvious. Irvine ranks last in the Big West and in the bottom 6% among all NCAA Division I schools in scholarship money. Raising student fees to fund athletics is not a new concept. UC Santa Barbara, UC Riverside, UC Davis and Fresno State have passed similar referendums in the last year.

Tough Sell

But getting students to pry open their--or their parents’--bank account will be a neat trick, especially since they begin paying $88 per quarter to fund the new recreation center next spring.

But Lawrence, Scoggin, Sarah Libecap (volleyball), Chris Benitez (swimming) and Kay Nekota (track and cross-country) took up the task in November and have put together a well-thought-out campaign.

Each athlete is required to secure commitments to vote from at least 10 students, which would total about 4,000. There are about 16,000 undergraduate students--graduate students vote separately on the referendum--and at least 25% of the students must vote to make it valid. Of those, 60% must vote yes on one of the fees proposed.

It’s safe to assume the athletes have not been gathering “no” votes.

Lawrence said they had 2,700 votes by Tuesday and he expected to hit 4,000 by Friday.

Some athletes have gone above-and-beyond. Dedra Butler is the leader among female athletes, having secured 299 commitments. Jeff Meinhardt is the top male with 150.

That they are both track and field athletes is not surprising. That program was slashed during the 1992 budget crunch. The cross-country program will be funded fully no matter which fee passes and two of the fees would fund the track program as well.

Motivation in other sports has run more toward cardiovascular activity.

“Coach said if we didn’t get the 10 votes, we were going to be running,” one men’s basketball player said.

“We were told we had to do a lap for every vote we came up short,” a men’s volleyball player said.

Only four sports receive the full scholarship allotment set by the NCAA: men’s and women’s basketball, women’s volleyball and men’s tennis. Bashing the lack of scholarship money has been standard recruiting practice by other schools, according to Irvine coaches.

So this is seen as a chance to put Irvine on equal footing, and nothing is being left to chance.

Athletes will man tables today along the walkway that circles the inside of the campus, a highly traveled path. They will also jog the circle in what is billed as a marathon--water polo players will wear Speedos, Scoggin emphasized.

“We want to get an inkling of what spirit is like,” Lawrence said. “The athletes are going to get out and make themselves known every day of the campaign.

“We couldn’t just sit back and have UCI left in the dust. This is a real opportunity to have the students understand what they can do for this campus. Athletics won’t make UC Irvine a better university. It’s already among the best. But they can enhance the student experience.”

Light Opposition

Organized opposition has been scant and loose-knit in comparison. A student environmental group has said the money could be better spent, ignoring the fact there is no money yet. One student has attempted a last-minute campaign, but there was little evidence of it as of Tuesday.

So the focus has been on apathy, which in past years has made the Bren Center a fine place to study . . . at least on game nights. The slogan, “Stop Having to Explain Where You Go To School,” is selling the idea that athletics would provide better name-recognition and, thus, increase the value of a degree.

It has struck a chord with some, as well as some of the tangible incentives. The referendum would provide students with free tickets to all Irvine basketball games.

“I want to get the tickets,” sophomore Joseph Gharibian said. “We have a better university than UCLA. If we have good athletic teams, it will be 10 times better.”

Said sophomore Karine Ceyhan: “The only thing we’re known for now is the bio department.”

Others aren’t so sure.

“I don’t see how it will increase the value of my education,” said Eileen Luhr, a graduate student studying history. “Maybe it will help students in management studies. Athletics seems to mean more to corporations.”

Opinions, though, may be in the minority. Of 20 students surveyed Tuesday, two were for the referendum, one was against it and 17 either said, “Referendum?” or “Election?”

“The hardest part will be to get the 25%,” Lawrence said. “But I bet the percentage of votes is going to be extraordinarily high.”