STAFF EDITORIAL
Duke Shepard, a member of the MHCCD board, said something at Wednesday’s board meeting indicating that athletics at MHCC do not affect many students directly, and essentially indicated that funding athletics should be a school responsibility instead of a student responsibility. That simply is not true. Athletics are there for the students, and the student body is not complaining about funding athletics. If the school were in charge of funding athletics, there would be no protection for them from cuts. Having student control of funding for both athletics and co-curricular programs is what will keep these amenities off the chopping block. Students are empowered through the ASG to have a role in programs that affect them. What has been proven over and over is that the school cannot fund these activities. The students can through the activity fees, and they do so willingly to ensure that our basketball team continues to thrive, or at least, that there is the potential. These things are what draw people to MHCC, adding to full-time enrollment numbers and increasing tuition levels. Without them, this would not be a college; it would just be another under-funded school. The fact that students are trying to protect the activities they care about says a lot about their priorities. The presentations proved the ASG is trying to be accountable for what they are asking the board to approve. Last year, Portland Community College lost their newspaper to budget cuts. MHCC President Robert Silverman indicated Wednesday that PCC might lose athletics if students can’t figure out a way to fund them. This won’t happen at MHCC. Our students have already found a way to fund these things and many more through the student fee. The fee increase is insurance that many of the things students like about college, and many of the things that give students the chance to be involved, will survive.
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