Poms face harsh cuts

Standing in the pouring rain last Saturday, the IU pom squad was prepared to cheer the football team to its first victory against Purdue since 1996. But before they took the field, the team listened to an unexpected announcement. The women were told that their athletic department funding had been canceled. Without the funding, the pom and crimson squads would not be able to travel to the national competition that they had been working for since August.\nSenior pom squad co-captain Erin Gross said the IU athletic department pays the way for the team's annual trip to Orlando, Fla., for the national Universal Cheerleaders Association cheer and dance competition. \nThe women were told Tuesday that they must raise $17,00 by today to make the trip to Orlando in January.\n"As seniors, we said that we will do anything it takes to get there. We have worked hard for four years and the talent level on this team is amazing, in a way we feel like the talent is being wasted if we don't get to go and compete," Gross said. \nLike many IU athletic teams the three squads -- cream, crimson and pom pom, which are made of nearly 60 students -- participate in four practices and two lifting and conditioning sessions a week at the same Assembly Hall facilities that the football team uses. \nTo qualify for nationals, the squads must prepare videos of their routines to be judged by the UCA. In the college championship qualification results, the pom pom squad placed 11th in the Division I-A dance competition and in their first year of competition, the crimson squad placed fourth in the All Girl Division I of cheerleading.\nDisappointment in the cutback spurred action as many of the pom squad members' parents e-mailed the athletic department to get answers to the sudden change.\n"Parents are sending e-mails and the athletic department is not responding," Melnee Kasper, mother of sophomore and pom squad member Megan Kasper said. "We wrote to IU administration and the athletic department to get a handle on what the original budget was and why the girls were cut from it. \n"We would like to understand their motivation for this, but we have not gotten a phone call or e-mail in response from (Athletics Director) Michael McNeeley or the administration. There is a $30 million budget and they can't or won't find $17,000, that's not a lot of money in a $30 million budget."\nThe recent cut to the squads' program was foreshadowed at the beginning of its season when last year's funds for equipment were revoked. Bouncing back from the cut the pom squad raised $23,000 from corporate sponsorship over the summer to prepare for the season. \nWhen asked about the cut, athletic department media relations director Jeff Fanter said the cut was strictly budgetary. \n"The trip would have put them 11 percent over budget. We are sympathetic to the squads, but everyone's budgets are being scrutinized," he said. \nFanter also said the squads' budget money this year had been spent on equipment and coach's salaries and their trip proposal was a set amount. Fanter said the squads did not pursue partial payment, the proposal was a concrete number. \nMembers of the pom squad said had they been notified earlier in the season that they would have to fund the trip they would have raised the money themselves.\n"They didn't tell us until this past weekend that we have to fund the trip ourselves," Gross said. "There is no time to get the money. We have been working to get commitments from companies. The athletic department doesn't think it's important, but no one is on scholarship and we work just as hard as any of the other sports. We are doing this for us and the five seniors on the team have built up the program since we were freshman. We are going to do anything we can to get there"