Friday update: Cal’s a financial mess Comments
Oregon State, Stanford and Washington State are far from the only Pacific-10 Conference schools to be experiencing athletic budget problems. California has them too, and is a veritable mess when compared to the Beavers.
Here’s a story from The Associated Press detailing the Bears’ problems with red ink, and the faculty’s (predictable) negative reaction to any genera-fund money being used to subsidize intercollegiate athletics:
(From my point of view, OSU more than gets its money’s worth in national exposure, alumni relationships and subsequent contributions to other arms of the university from donors who also give to athletics (such as Martin Kelley of the Kelley Engineering Building, the Reser family, the Austin family, and the Valley family at OSU) in exchange for the approximately $2.5 million the athletic department annually receives from the OSU general fund.
(One could call it the price of Pacific-10 Conference membership, and the price one pays to guarantee equal opportunity, a well-rounded athletic program and an A in Title IX compliance. But that’s just me.)
Anyway, here’s the article on Cal’s current mess, and it doesn’t even tough on the $10 million or so in accumulated athletic department debt that was simply forgiven by the state of California earlier in this decade:
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) – Faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, are crying foul about the millions of dollars in subsidies directed to the school’s athletic department.
The campus Academic Senate on Thursday voted 91-68 in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for an end to campus support of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and requiring a plan for paying back loans already made.
Cal’s football and men’s basketball programs make money, but other sports don’t. Even with $7.7 million in subsidies from the campus chancellor and student fees, the department ran up a deficit of $5.8 million for the fiscal year just ended and projects another deficit next year.
That has stirred criticism as deep state budget cuts have resulted in class cutbacks, faculty furloughs and student fee hikes.
“Action is imperative given the current budget crisis,” said Alice Agogino, a mechanical engineering professor who supported the resolution.
Some spoke in favor of the athletics department, including recent graduate and former swim team member Natalie LaRochelle, who grew tearful as she talked about the difficulty deciding which programs to cut.
“Cutting athletic funding right now is not the answer, because intercollegiate athletics enriches the entire university by giving back in both cultural and material ways,” she said.
Athletics Director Sandy Barbour acknowledged the deficits are a problem and said the money will be repaid.
Berkeley officials say the department generates about 89 percent of its budget through ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, television rights fees, fundraising and endowment income.
Although the resolution is symbolic, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said after the meeting he will work on developing a plan to reduce costs and get the department on a self-supporting basis.
He said he could not give a timeline on when that might happen.
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