University needs better money management

The art of budgeting is a tricky business when funds are limited. Do you buy those concert tickets to The Gorge, or save the money in case that required history textbook you put off purchasing turns out to be important to understanding the course after all?

Like its students, the University of Montana is often strapped for cash and must make careful decisions about where to spend each dollar.

This year’s addition of 2,000 seats to Washington-Grizzly Stadium is an unacceptable misuse of money when other vital components of campus require more immediate attention.
The University’s first and foremost responsibility is education. While Griz football games can add pride, camaraderie, publicity and even revenue to UM, ultimately academics must come before entertainment.
Over a million dollars of the stadium expansion – approved by the Board of Regents as a 5.5 million dollar project – will come from the extra $10 tacked on to student athletic fees each semester for the next five years.
If the University feels compelled to increase student fees to improve a UM structure, the money should go toward a more pressing cause that currently needs improvement.
Creating additional dorm space so that some poor freshman from New Hampshire doesn’t have to spend his first week in Missoula sleeping in a study lounge would be a worthier cause. That freshman wouldn’t want another seat at a Griz game; he would want a bed.
And then there’s the Mansfield Library with its poor lighting, crowded shelves, lack of comfortable seating and absence of aesthetics. Students make a semester goal of avoiding that place; even the fifth floor feels like a dark dungeon.
Finally, at a university that prides itself on its strong liberal arts education, let us not forget the Liberal Arts Building, where a vast number of UM’s liberal arts courses meet. Shouldn’t the University be saving money to improve what now resembles a 1970s high school complete with shrill bells, drab hallways, small classrooms and – at times – malfunctioning windows and sinks?
With everything that currently needs fixing to enhance the academic atmosphere on campus, UM can’t afford to spend money on the stadium. The University needs to be responsible and set its priorities straight when deciding where to send tuition dollars.
More seats are great for Griz fans, but when students shun the one key building on campus dedicated to books and study, and Spanish class attendees look at exposed pipes and broken windows, UM needs to direct its attention away from football and toward academics.
And as for those 78 students who are currently without a dorm room? At least the Washington-Grizzly Stadium expansion should provide enough space for them to pitch a tent or two.