Story 5

Josiah Daniels

March 24, 2011

Football Student Life

Football Program Rejected at Student Life Meeting

            Students voted 12-8 with one abstention to not bring a football team to Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC) at the Student Life (SL) meeting on March 3^rd. Instead, they chose to earmark $100,000 for a future student center.

            This meeting was focused on what SL should do with excess funds that needed to be spent.

            David Alto, the athletic director for ARCC, came to the meeting to propose the idea of creating a football team that would be based at the Cambridge Campus. Alto stated that he believed the program would be successful because ARCC would be the only junior college of its type in the area with a football program. The other colleges in the area with football are either private colleges or four-year colleges. Rochester is the closest junior college to the cities with a football program right now.

            Alto projected the start up fee of the program to be $100,000. Alto also stated that the annual fee to maintain the program would be $35,000 not including the fee for coaches. Coaches fees would be anywhere from $25,000-$40,000 a year. This would cover the cost of three coaches. These funds would come out of the Cambridge Campus’ student life funds. However, the first year fees for coaches would be paid for through institutional funds. 

            Alto also explained how the football program would get started this spring, but the team would not officially start playing games until the fall of 2012.

            According to Kim Bienfang, who works on the financial side of ARCC, SL will have $340,000 in funds by the end of next year. According to Cindi Gilbert, the director of Student Life at the Cambridge campus, 74 percent of SL funds have been spent over the last four years. Also, Student Life is required to keep 20 percent of its money in savings.

Lanny Maetzold, a member of student government, was one of the students there who was in favor of the football program. In a follow-up interview with Maetzold, he said, “Though the football program would be rather expensive to start, it is important to consider the positive impact such a program would have on the local community.”

Jennifer Dressick, also a member of student government, stated in a follow-up interview, “This 100,000 start-up is an investment in the future of our local youth.” Dressick believes that the football program will help to keep local youth, who would go somewhere else to play football, in the area.

The opposition to the football program, however, believed that the student life money should be used for something that can benefit all students instead of just football players and fans.

Cory Lundeen, a member of the honor society Phi Theta Kappa, also believed that the demographics of our school aren’t the best for football. “Our student body consists of mostly nontraditional students, PSEO or people returning back to school in their late 20s to 40s,” Lundeen stated. PSEO stands for Post Secondary Enrollment Option. It is a program where the state pays for high school students to go to college.

 Instead, Cory Lundeen made a motion to earmark $100,000 for a future student center or other amenities that would benefit all students. Scott Clausen, who is the president of the Christian group on campus called Hearts Ablaze, seconded that motion. The motion passed 12-2 with four students abstaining.

            Likewise, the students passed a motion approving $7,500 of SL money to be used for hanging and pedestal equipment for an upcoming art gallery.

            According to Gilbert, SL still has at least $100,000 dollars left over after these expenditures. ###