President emphasizes IU's future

With the national spotlight fading on from, president Myles Brand wants to make sure everyone knows he is focusing on the future instead of the past and academics instead of athletics.\n"The perception created by the attention to Bob Knight and athletics is that we have lost sight of our central mission," Brand said. "It's just the opposite. IU is an academic institution first and foremost. Teaching, learning and research is what we're all about."\nBrand emphasized his desire to move forward during an interview with the IDS. He spoke of IU's positive attributes, how state economics play a role in the University's future and how the athletics department is a separate entity from the University. Brand avoided questions regarding the specific details of his decision to release former basketball coach Bob Knight. \n"Sometimes you have to act for the long-term benefit of the institution," Brand said. "It was the hardest decision of my life, because I appreciate the good things he's done."\nBrand said his single most difficult task now is making sure IU continues to receive and attract funds and resources. Indiana's economic status in part determines how much money the University receives from the state. IU automatically receives a portion of the state's budget every year, and when the economy is doing well, it can battle for more.\n"IU has to compete for state funding to continue to make progress in our academic mission," Brand said. "The state's economy is the single most important factor as to whether IU will do well."\nIn good economic conditions, more money flows to the state because as people get richer, they pay more in taxes, resulting in a larger surplus, said Bill Witte, an associate economics professor. \n"The state then determines where to spend the money," said Robert Becker, chairman of the economics department. "But if budgets are tight and the state is fiscally is not doing well, (legislators) may have to watch what they\'re spending and where they're spending it."\nTrustee Stephen Backer said that if the legislature doesn't have the money because of a slow economy, then all budgetary items are reduced.\n"If the economy is doing well, you have a better shot of getting more money," Backer said. "But if it's small, then everybody will take a hit."\nTrustee Stephen Ferguson -- a former state representative -- said the money IU receives directly relates to the amount students are charged for tuition.\n"When the surplus is low, there's a tendency to look to tuition instead of state appropriations," Ferguson said. "There's a tradeoff. If you get less appropriation, then you raise tuition."\nA common misconception is that tuition money goes to help the athletics department. At 90 percent of major college programs, that's the case. Not at IU, Brand said. \nEven though three non-revenue varsity sports have been added in three years -- in accordance with the NCAA's gender equity rules -- Brand will continue to rely on athletics director Clarence Doninger to balance the budget.\n"I've made it very clear to the athletics department that we're not going to move any academic money into athletics," Brand said. "That makes it all the more important that the department run a clean and efficient program."\nTo keep the athletics budget operating in the black, Brand is relying on money that will come from the NCAA and its television rights contracts. He also said he doesn't plan to strike any advertising deals in the near future, which will keep Assembly Hall free from large advertisements -- a possibility Knight alluded to in a speech Wednesday.\n"That's not on the docket right now," Brand said. "I can't tell you what will happen in the future when we get a new athletics director"