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Every Tuesday students have the chance to participate in wheelchair basketball at the Rec.
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Students give to the community and the commuity gives back.
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Check out a recap and phtos from the last home football game.
arbiteronline.com The Arbiter S t u d e n t
V o i c e
o f
B o is e
S tat e
Si n c e
December 2, 2013 • Issue no.28 Volume 27
Boise, Idaho
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C
A C is a degree but everyone wants an A
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Boise State
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SEXUAL HEALTH
REPORT
CARD Katie Meikle
@KateRosePumpkin
Page Design Bryan Talbot
There is nothing sexy about a “C” on a report card—especially if that grade is in sexual health. But a “C” is the grade that Boise State received this year based on the Trojan Sexual Health Report Card Rankings. “A C is a degree but everyone wants an A,” said Perry Truong, a freshman at Boise State studying marketing, about the rankings. The Trojan Sexual Health Report Card is an annual study conducted by Sperling’s BestPlaces. It ranks 140 colleges and universities across the country on the accessibility of sexual health resources provided to students on campus. Some Boise State students expressed confidence about the availability of sexual health resources on campus. “If I wanted information on sexual health I would go to the Women’s Center,” Truong said. “But I heard they provide free condoms at Norco.” This year, Boise State ranked 67th, losing 15 places from their 2012 ranking of 52nd. This computes roughly to a GPA of 2.1—or a letter grade “C” based on the Boise State University grading system. In the Sexual Health Report Card, university health services are graded on 11 separate categories including condom and contraceptive availability, and the availability of HIV and STI testing. “Every year you have an influx of people coming to college for the first time. Sexual health is a concern for them and they don’t know where to go or who to talk to,” said Andy Barsness, a junior studying communication. Boise State’s ranking may reflect a need for greater sexual health outreach by the university. “I don’t actively seek information on sexual health through the university, but even if I did I wouldn’t know where to go,” Barsness said.
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Quick facts from the Trojan Rankings
8th
This is the annual Trojan Sexual Health Report card ranking college campuses.
Boise State has struggled to make the grade over the eight years that the study has been conducted. It had a highly inconsistent performance ranging from poor to slightly above average. According to Bert Sperling, the head researcher of Sperling’s BestPlaces, the overall trend among all universities has been improvement across the board in the eight years that the study has been conducted. “The Sexual Health Report Card is all about putting information in the hands of students so that they can make their own smart and safe decisions,” Sperling told The Arbiter. The Sexual Health Report Card itself has inspired students across the country to take initiatives to advance the cause of sexual health at their universities. “Often times students take our findings and go to the administrations at their universities to say ‘hey, we are not doing as well as we think we should, what can we do to improve access to resources and improve our ranking?’” Sperling said. The Internet has largely contributed to improved accessibility of sexual health resources. While student health centers have been slow to adopt the web as a means of getting information out, they are catching on quickly. “In the last five or six years we’ve seen a big change in the amount and type of information like contraception and safesex practices that is being made available to students,” Sperling said. The 140 universities selected for the 2013 Sexual Health Report are chosen by relative size by student population and are often compared alongside their collegiate peers. Peer universities are chosen based on athletic conference. Small universities that have an outsized influence, like the Ivy League schools, are also graded. In the future, Sperling’s BestPlaces intends to expand the study to additional universities in the United States. Princeton University is the number one ranking university this year.
55 was Boise
State’s rank in 2012.
15
spots That’s lower than Boise State’s current ranking. The Ivy
League and Big Ten
battle each year for who has the most schools in the top ten.
Princeton
ranked #1 in 2013.
BYU came in last, ranked at 140, for
the fourth year in a row.
Funding for utilities is questioned Matt Shelar
tween those two entities.” The two entities to which Burbank refers are appropriated budgets and auxiliary budgets. According to the Glossary of Budget Terms on Boise State’s website, “Appropriated budgets are controlled and are not allowed to be overspent,” while auxiliary budgets are “selfsupporting units within the University.” “The way tuition goes through the state—it simply comes back to us and they
Devin Ferrell/THE ARBITER
Utility costs on campus are broken up by electric, gas, geothermal, sewer, trash and water. The most expensive of these are electric and gas. The newest is geothermal energy. These utilities are paid for by a state-dictated plan called the central utility budget. For all buildings considered property of Boise State, the cost of utilities last year was $5,031,534 and cost an average
monthly fee of approximately $419,285. However, it is unclear whether or not these utility costs are covered by student tuition and fees. In charge of this budget at Boise State is Barry Burbank, the university’s senior financial analyst. “The central utility funds are those that are appropriated in source. Appropriated budgets are likely state-taxpayer, but may be tuition,” Burbank said. “I can’t tell you the difference when I get my budgets be-
Last year, Boise State paid a total of $5,031,534 in utility costs.
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don’t tell us which piece is which. It’s just a source of funding,” Burbank said. In accordance with the Budget Office’s revenue projections, in 2008 there were approximately 19,000 students enrolled at Boise State and the university was allowed $88 million dollars by the state (i.e. tax-payers). This year’s enrollment includes roughly 22,000 students, but state-funding has been reduced to about $78 million dollars. “When the bubble burst in 2008 they had to go through hold-backs. Tax receipts were down because income was down. It has not been restored to that level,” Burbank said. “That means we look at tuition to help fill the gap.” Affected immensely by this fiscal “bubble burst” was the cost of Boise State’s physical plant. Physical plant is the designated term which describes general upkeep for campus facilities. Included in the cost of physical plant are utilities costs. Five years ago the cost of physical plant was about $14.5 million dollars. It has now escalated to about $21 million dollars. To help these matters the university has implemented
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Courtesy
If there are parts of this campus I never visit, why should I have to worry about their electric bills? —Taylor Sievers
the utilization of geothermal energy, beginning in 2013. “We are now on the geothermal loop with the city of Boise, and we’re adding up to 10 buildings that will heat as much as we can via geothermal,” Burbank said. “There are no greenhouse gases, it’s more efficient than natural gas and it’s always on.” To put it in perspective, the geothermal bill cost $11,000 last year. The gas bill cost a little under a million. Though the university’s higher-ups are constructing helpful and efficient solutions, the bills still have to be paid somehow. Taylor Sievers, senior general business major, thinks it would be ridiculous if any utility expenses were tacked onto the cost of tuition and fees, as students do not always utilize everything campus has to offer. “Most businesses pay for their own maintenance. They don’t expect the customers to
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pay an additional fee,” Sievers said. “If there are parts of this campus I never visit, why should I have to worry about their electric bills?” In agreement with Sievers is Stela Saltaga, senior communication major. Saltaga argues that there are people who use campus services who are not students. “I know there are plenty of people who use things on campus and don’t even go here. I don’t understand why it would be necessary for students to have to pay for other people to use the tools that are supposed to be provided for us,” Saltaga said. Yet with all the help the state has granted, it’s still unclear whether or not the cost of utilities is covered by tuition and fees. “It’s a mystery. It’s just the way the system’s set up. How much of the produce proceeds in an Albertsons market pay utilities? It’s that same challenge,” Burbank said.
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