Students will approve or reject the initiative, which includes a fee hike of $165 each quarter to establish and maintain a competitive program in Division I. In order to compete at the new level, UCSD must issue a minimum amount of scholarship to athletes. UCSD has been competing in Division II since 2000 and already has Division I programs for fencing, men’s volleyball and water polo.
Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC) chairman Brian McEuen wrote a letter to Wing, recommending that the referendum be tabled until some of the wording was changed, and adjustments to the procedures for Intercollegiate Athletic fund regulation were made. Wing said that she met privately with an SFAC representative and that all of SFAC’s concerns had been solved. “[SFAC] had written their letter based on a previous draft of the referendum,” Wing said. “All of the issues were addressed in the final draft.”