UCSD Students to vote on Division I this week

Over a week-long voting period that starts on Monday, UCSD students will vote on whether to raise student fees over the course of three years in order to make the move to Division I.

In a podcast last month, UCSD Senior Associate Athletic Director, Ken Grosse, talked with me about it at some length.

The results of the vote will not be known until next Friday afternoon, May 20th.

It makes sense for UCSD to be a Division I school. It has an academic reputation that rivals schools like UC Berkeley and UCLA and enrollment higher than other Division I UC schools like UCSB, UC Irvine, and UC Riverside, all of whom play in the Big West.

I am a former UCSD Guardian sports writer, a member of the UCSD Pep Band, Shuttle Driver, and supporter of the Division I move. Here’s hoping the student body does the right thing and approves the fee increase.

The Tritons a part of Division I and NCAA’s March Madness? It could happen!

As an alumnus of both UCSD and Cal Poly living in San Luis Obispo, I witnessed Cal Poly’s first Division I basketball tournament appearance last year from here on the central coast. The buzz around the university was palpable. So many of the people I deal with at work from around the country suddenly had some context for my town, and my school. Cal Poly is definitely well-known in academic and engineering circles, but this was different. Since those two appearances on national television (the Mustangs won a first-four game), lots of people in my field (education) understand the central coast based on the context of that tournament run. Later that year, the Mustang baseball team hosted a regional and again, people took notice.

Votes like this are always fascinating. There is a concerted effort online and on Library Walk from UCSD Students for Division I, along with other outreach efforts, but who knows how people will actually vote. Students have five days to make their voice heard starting Monday, so keep you updated here as best we can throughout the process.