POSTED AT 12:00 AM ON Aug. 31, 2005 | PRINT | Email | SHARE | COMMENTS (0)

The IU-Bloomington budget accommodated the new burden of academic advising for athletes this year, despite an additional $11 million deficit.

The financial shift to IU academics brought up questions of athletics department "subsidizing," which IU President Adam Herbert dismissed in the past.

The extra costs placed on the academic budget were paid for by assessing additional fees on individual schools, said IU Vice Chancellor for Budget and Administration Neal Theobald. While IU academic units paid $500,000, or two-thirds of the budget required for the athletic academic advising this year, they will be responsible for fully funding the program's $750,000 annual revenue for the 2006-07 academic year and the years following. He said the additional budget needs for the athletic advising had no direct effect on the 35 faculty cuts announced in July.

"We had $6.6 million in freshman enrollment budget cuts, and we had a nearly $5 million cut in state appropriations," Theobald said. "Every school faced covering the budget cuts. It all plays a part in balancing the budget."

In the spring, Herbert decided to change academic advising for athletes at IU. Athletics advisers now report to traditional academic advising offices, rather than the athletics department. Under the new policy, IU academic units are also responsible for paying for the program.

Bob Eno, professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures and co-chairman of the national Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics said COIA supported "shifting the reporting line" but said the cost of the program should be the responsibility of the athletics department.

"From the academic side of the University, it is nothing but $750,000 in extra costs. I can't see any advantage to the academic side of the University," Eno said. "As for the reporting side, I think it is an advantage to everyone involved."

But the University administration only gave IU academics control of athletic advising after already shifting the financial burden to University departments, he said.

Ted Miller, president of the Bloomington Faculty Council, said the BFC supported the resolution, though there was some dissent among its members.

Miller said COIA recommended the advising office of athletes report to the academic side of the University in order to avoid scandals like the one uncovered in the University of Minnesota men's basketball program from 1993 to 1998, in which academic advising staff were producing course work for at least 18 players with the coach's knowledge.

"I'm not trying to tell you that there aren't people running around objecting to the resolution," said Miller, a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. "(Our support) has to do with the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics."

Theobald acknowledged the opposition to the financial shift, but said the decision for shifting the financial burden was made with the focus of furthering student academics in all facets of the University.

"Athletes are students and we pay for academic advising for students," Theobald said. "The decision was made that the campus should pay for the academic advising of student-athletes, as well. It's an additional cost to the campus. That's the difficulty you're facing with expenditures when your budget is being cut. It was clearly a controversy because it was a change in policy."