Editorial: It’s fair to tax rowdy students

After West Virginia University’s football victory over the University of Texas this past Saturday, a crowd of 1,000 people gathered in a student-dominated neighborhood in Morgantown. According to an article on the university’s website, 29 fires were set, and the crowd threw rocks and bricks at police officers and firefighters.

As a result, the university community is searching for the revelers, including students, who set fires and attacked police and firefighters. The students involved face possible expulsion. In addition, Morgantown Mayor Jim Manilla intends to ask the city council to consider imposing a $20 per semester “impact fee” to be paid by each student to cover the cost of the destruction and to pay for the bolstered security that football games necessitate.

While we see some problems with this type of tax — which would raise $1.2 million annually — we are generally in support of it for a student body that has a history of destroying property after football games.

This tax may nothave a very high deterrent factor, because it’s likely that students will pay this fee — along with every other fee that is rolled into their price of attendance — without giving it much thought. It’s also not likely that a total of $40 per year — compared to the high price of attending college — is going to make students reconsider reckless actions. We think that the purpose of the tax — to repair damage and increase security — is fair.

Also, it may be problematic that the majority of students are probably not those involved in severe property damage, yet all students would have to pay the fee. But because the fee is relatively low, we can’t imagine that this fee in particular would cause financial hardship, and hopefully it will help increase campus security.

This students-only fee seems somewhat similar to the 2009 Fair Share Tax, proposed for all Pittsburgh-area university students by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. Ravenstahl argued that the tax was needed to provide more public safety and services as the city’s 10 universities expand, but revenue for the city decreased. This tax, which was eventually shot down due to divided city council member opinions, was equal to one percent of college tuition.

Here in Pittsburgh, the argument that students should pay a tax because they are not giving back enough to the city is innappropriate, considering that universities and their students provide other forms of economic support to the city. However, the fee for WVU students is to make up for their potential destruction, not what they aren’t providing to the city, as was the case in the Fair Share Tax.

We support the addition of this relatively minimal fee on students at WVU. It probably won’t end the student body’s tradition of property destruction, but hopefully, it will help compensate the city for some of the damage.