Faculty Senate suggests cut to auxiliary funds

The University of Northern Iowa Faculty Senate recently passed a resolution suggesting that the university administration consider reducing the amount of funding allocated to the athletics department and other auxiliary enterprises.

The resolution is an update of an earlier proposal to the senate last year by economics professor Hans Isakson that asked university officials to reduce the amount of General Education Funds budgeted to auxiliary enterprises – including athletics, the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center, the Wellness and Recreation Center, Maucker Union and the Student Health Center – from 6 percent to 3 percent during a five-year period.

The new resolution proposes that, in light of the recent reductions in state funding for the university, the budget be reduced before the beginning of the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. The resolution also recommends that UNI cut support to auxiliary funds to 1 percent of the General Education Fund if state appropriations decrease again.

"I felt, and the Faculty Senate agreed, that when there are budget cuts we shouldn't be canceling classes and making students wait around an extra year to get the courses they need to graduate, and we should be cutting the nonessential parts of the university," Isakson said. "And particularly, we should be trying to use the state appropriations and tuition money we collect from students to support the academic programs of the university, not to pay for intercollegiate athletics or some of these auxiliary enterprises."

According to Isakson, the athletics department received about $5.2 million from the General Education Fund in 2009. The next largest beneficiary was the GBPAC, which received about $1.2 million.

Jeffrey Funderburk, faculty senator and music professor, agreed with the proposal but objected to the use of the broad heading "auxiliary enterprises," stating that some operations falling under that category support the academic mission of the university.

"Auxiliary enterprises included the Student Health Center. It includes all athletic events, it includes the health center, it includes the (GBPAC) — some of those have educational support functions. Obviously the health center has a lot of functions just for keeping the campus healthy, particularly with all of these flu scares that have been going on. And others have been purely of an athletic and entertainment nature," Funderburk said. "So my point was that talking in broad generalities was bad when some items in there had more importance with the function of the university than others, I felt."

Funderburk added that about one-half to three-quarters of the money going to the GBPAC is spent to support educational activities.

Troy Dannen, director of athletics, chose not to comment on the resolution, but explained that it is not uncommon for university athletic departments to use general funds.

"There are 880 institutions in the United States that are members of the (National Collegiate Athletic Association) that have athletic programs, and I think 10 of them do not use general fund resources," he said. "And basically, athletics departments are not self-sustaining, certainly at the level at which Northern Iowa competes. They are in some cases — the Big 10, (Southeastern Conference) — those schools that generate many millions from football.

"But like almost any other entity on campus, we are not completely able to fund operations with the revenue that we generate. And that is not unique to Northern Iowa: that is very, very, common throughout the country. Actually, Northern Iowa, for its budget, we generate much more of our budget than almost any school among our peers does."

Dannen explained that the difference between UNI and other schools in conference is their primary source of funding. According to Dannen, schools like Illinois State University get more revenue from student fees while UNI relies more on the General Education Fund.

The General Education Fund is largely comprised of state appropriations, which come from taxpayers' money and students' tuition money, and is available to support the university's academic mission.

"Intercollegiate athletics collects a fee from students, and in addition to that, they get a rather large chunk of money from your tuition and from taxpayers' money that, in the opinion of many of us, should be used primarily to support the educational mission of the university and not its auxiliary options," Isakson said.

"That was why I submitted that resolution, because we were seeing cuts and are still seeing reductions in our number of faculty; we're seeing reductions in academic programs, fewer courses being offered, because of these budget cuts."

Isakson said that he wanted to raise students' awareness of how their tuition dollars are being used.

"I think most students aren't even aware of the fact that not only are they paying fees for the (WRC) and the student health center and (Maucker Union) and intercollegiate athletics, but there's a pretty big chunk of your tuition going to these places too, over and above your fees. And that has been growing rather rapidly since the year 2000," he said.

"And so this resolution is bringing that more to light and questioning that with these budget cutbacks. We have to start putting priorities where they belong."

Funderburk agreed with Isakson, believing that the school's priority should be academics.

"I'm not anti-athletics in any way; it's just a matter of a funding issue and seeing that the dollars that come from the state actually go first to educate the students," he said. "And I hate to see tuition keep going up when it's actually going to support something that a lot of the students don't realize is draining as much of the money as it is. Everyone assumes that athletics pay for themselves; most people are pretty surprised when they find out that's not the case."