Can’t we just once settle something without discussing the validity of the vote?
West Texas A&M University’s student body — or a small fraction of it — has voted narrowly to endorse the construction of a new on-campus football stadium.
WT enrolls about 9,000 students; of that total, fewer than 1,600 of them cast ballots on the idea. What’s more, it passed by 68 votes. Hardly a smashing mandate.
Hey, there’s no rule that said it had to pass by a larger margin among a larger pool of voters. Correct?
One of the issues appears to be the timing of the construction and the notion that current students will be exempt from the proposed $152 per-semester fee increase that will be levied on future students to help pay for construction of the unnamed stadium that’s estimated to cost about $26 million.
No worries, says retiring WT President J. Pat O’Brien. The school will use reserve funds that comprise fees contributed by current WT students. Thus, he said, the current student body has “skin in the game.”
I want to applaud the university for asking the students to decide whether to support this idea. It’s going to be their financial burden to bear and it is only right to ensure that the school has the support of the student body before proceeding with construction.
I also lament the lack of turnout among the student body. I get that students are busy. They have lots on their minds, particularly the upperclassmen and women who are planning their post-university lives.
However, the size of the turnout really doesn’t matter. We elect presidents of the United States of America often with barely more than half of those who are eligible to vote.
As for whether today’s student body has “skin in the game,” that’s an unavoidable circumstance. Today’s students cannot be expected to hang around longer than they need to just to pay for a major construction project.
My hope now is that the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents signs off on the project and that the school can build a stadium that will make the students proud.