Balancing budget burdens

Athletes deserve to receive tutoring if they need it. And sensibly, the academic side of the University should supervise this tutoring, relieving the IU Athletics Department of temptations that could lead to academic scandals (as witnessed at other Big Ten universities). That does not, however, translate into a mandate for all students on the academic side of the school to foot the bill. \nIf athletes receive a special focus, the burden for funding that special treatment should fall on the athletics department.\nThe matter is an issue of fairness. The tutoring athletes receive is not open to any regular IU student. Student-athletes do carry a heavy burden, but it is no greater than the students who work 20-plus hours a week to help finance their schooling and put clothes on their back, or the student who comes home from class to children they need to raise. The burden student-athletes carry is no more (or less) worthy of a special budgetary emphasis from the University than the weight felt by working or parent students. It is simply unfair to prioritize the needs of athletes over other deserving students. \nThe athletics department, on the other hand, has a responsibility to see their athletes are not left behind in the classroom while they pursue the goal of athletic excellence on the field. This responsibility to the student-athlete includes the responsibility of paying for it.\nIt is true the department is facing some hard times financially, but the department should be expected to provide both the tutoring and the budget for it. If the cost of tutoring necessitates cutbacks in other areas, so be it. The athletics department should not have their burdens placed on others who are already facing cutbacks. Doing so simply shortchanges the rest of us.\n

DISSENT It's the money, stupid

\nIt doesn't matter if we want the IU athletics department to pay for advising for its athletes. It doesn't have the money. \nIf you want to tell athletes we'd rather not pay for their advising, you should let the University know you don't want an athletics department anymore, or, at least, a dominant sports team ever again -- one of the most pivotal pieces of IU's history.\nEnvision for a minute a budget-strained athletics department is told, "The advising remains your responsibility." In our scenario, the IU Athletics Department is forced to:\nA) Borrow more money, ensuring the compounding of its current problems;\nB) Cut advising for athletes, ending the likelihood recruits will attend IU, in turn, ending the chance of future championship-caliber programs; or\nC) Cut a number of Olympic sports (not basketball or football).\nIf you're comfortable with cutting Olympic sports, if it's even allowed in the NCAA, then you can have the pleasure of helping each team member pack up and leave IU -- something one should not be comfortable with.\nShould the department be in this absurd, gaping money hole? No. The department is responsible for its budget woes, but forcing them to eat their debt only hurts student-athletes. Don't sell yourself this utopia where we tell the athletics department to shove it and we maintain a large chunk of IU past, present and future -- Hoosier sports.