Committee votes against renewal of athletics fee

One year after the University passed the athletics fee without student approval, the student-run Committee for Fee Review recommended not to renew the athletics fee before spring break.\nThe $30 fee would have provided about $1.1 million to the athletics department to help fund the 22 non-revenue IU sports. IU Athletics Director Rick Greenspan was let down by the committee's recommendation but understands the process is not finished.\n"I was disappointed by the initial reading of it from the students," he said. "As I said very candidly, we asked all of our constituents for help financially, as well as the understanding that we've got to drive ourselves toward self-sufficiency. And we've asked that of our administration, we've asked that of our donors, we've asked that of our alums. So it was disappointing to see, but I'd like to think that there's still some good campus debate on it."\nIn its report, the CFR stated that the athletics department's "budgetary justification" was "insufficient to command a fee for all students." In its presentation to the CFR, Greenspan alluded to other ways his department was bringing in money including corporate sponsorships, costs being soaked up by the University and an annually increasing endowment. \nAs a member of the CFR, former Residential Halls Services President John Palmer said the committee couldn't find a service the athletics department was producing for the students.\n"Basically, we were trying to make sure there was an evident service being produced to students, and in the case of athletics, being temporarily instituted last year, there would not be the idea of an evident return to students," he said.\nPalmer said the CFR looked for a proposal that would give the students their money's worth, and in Greenspan's presentation, it did not see that.\nNow that the CFR has made its recommendations, the next step in the process is for Dean of Students Richard McKaig to review the recommendations for all 14 mandatory student fees -- of which the athletics fee was the only one to not receive funding -- and pass it on to IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis for final review. He then sends it to the trustees for a final vote.\nBut Palmer said that what was recommended by the CFR might not be what gets passed by the trustees.\n"The trustees can overrule. They can do whatever they want," Palmer said. "These are strictly recommendations. Historically they haven't (overruled them). We hope our recommendations are what get passed."\nFred Eichhorn, president of the IU board of trustees, said he understood why the students recommended the way they did, but he also said the University needs to supply the athletic department with funding. \n"We have to fund athletics and we either fund the full expenses or we start cutting things," Eichhorn said.\nHe went on to say it is possible for his group to overrule the recommendation by the CFR, but he wasn't sure what it will do. Besides advertising, Eichhorn listed other ways to come up with the $1.1 million that will be lost if the trustees accept the recommendation. \n"There might be some places to pick up small portions of it, but some things might have to be cut," Eichhorn said. "Probably male, non-revenue sports. We are mandated by federal law to increase the participation of the female sports, so we could balance perhaps, which no one wants to do, by cutting noon revenue male sports." \nHe said he doesn't know which sports will be cut, if it gets to that. Of the 24 varsity sports at IU, 22 are non-revenue sports. \nAs the process continues, Palmer said the CFR will reconvene this week to put the final vote on their recommendations. And while that continues, Greenspan said he will not talk to the trustees because that is IU President Adam Herbert's job.\n"Certainly, if the fee does not materialize, that million or $1.1 (million) has implications on the solvency of our program. So we'll have to shift and adjust if we don't receive that fee," he said.\nIf the athletics department does not receive the $1.1 million, Greenspan will have to re-evaluate his plan.\n"We haven't gotten that far," he said. "We'll look at it."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Josh Weinfuss at jweinfus@indiana.edu.