End the 'fee' for all

The IU athletics department is in quite a pickle.\nThe department, under Athletics Director Terry Clapacs, is dealing with a "structural deficit" of $2 million. Financial hard times are the result of poor ticket sales and contract buy-out pensions for former athletic big-shots. And with a boring home football schedule looming next fall, things aren't looking up.\nWhat students may not know is that while the IU athletics department is close to our hearts, it's far from our wallets -- it receives no funding from the University. So it should be able to work out this dilemma itself, right?\nApparently not -- instead of maintaining his department's self-sufficiency, Clapacs has drafted a proposal for the IU board of trustees asking for a mandatory $30 athletics fee from students this fall.\nWe at the Indiana Daily Student usually aren't big fans of mandatory fees, but we're not necessarily adverse to something that might potentially benefit the student body. Perhaps with this additional funding, we could score some free tickets or at least a student cheering section for men's basketball. \nNope, wrong again.\nThe new revenue will not directly benifit students. All $1.15 million raised next year will help bail out the floundering athletics department budget.\nBesides being unfair, the fee sets a dangerous precedent. No other public universities provide any financial support to their athletics departments. Clapacs said if the situation improves, the school might can the fee. But in a situation where the financial success of the football season depends on whether we play Ohio State at home, we have a feeling the fee might be here to stay.\nAs for the trustees, they'll no longer be able to silence complaints that tuition dollars only fund the arguably extravagant salaries of the athletics employees.\nIn an interview with the IDS, Clapacs foreboded that cutting athletic scholarships, eliminating teams or reducing the number of men's basketball tickets available to students were all likely consequences if his proposal is not approved.\nNone of those ideas sound like much fun, but here's one we like: cut the fat. With the proverbial belt tightening all over the world, maybe the athletics department should stop lining its own pockets and get a smaller pair of pants. And even though Clapacs has eliminated some permanent and hourly positions, it's wasteful for the department to still pay people who no longer work for it, like former athletic director Michael McNeely and former football coach Cam Cameron.\nNow, we love IU sports, and we want to maintain the tradition of excellence for which our school is known. We simply suggest there must be a better way to fix the athletics department's problems than foisting them off on the student body.\nWe'd hope the athletics department would subject its own budget to intense review before it dips into ours at the cost of its oft-touted autonomy. When the athletics fee comes up for vote, we hope the trustees will make a wise decision and say no.