BFC meeting covers wide array of topics

IU’s current funding formula is not sustainable, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Neil Theobald said at Tuesday’s Bloomington Faculty Council meeting.

“We cannot have a model that is dependent on that much student debt,” he said. “We’ve got to find another way.”

Theobald delivered an update on IU-Bloomington’s budget following President Michael McRobbie’s warning that all revenue sources are under threat.

For the first time in school history, tuition and fees produced the majority of revenue. Theobald reported that for the 2011-12 academic year, tuition and fees made up 51 percent of revenue, the State of Indiana contributed 16 percent, auxiliaries 14 percent, research 11 percent and gifts 8 percent.

In the past, IU has countered reduced state funding by increasing out-of-state tuition — but Indiana now has the third highest non-resident tuition rate in the Big Ten.

“My concern is that we’ve gone about as far as we can go for nonresident tuition,” Theobald said.

Without tuition increases, however, Theobald said layoffs and spending cuts could begin. That is why the University is considering the privatization of parking.

“I was originally asked to speak about (parking), but parking and revenue are basically the same topic,” he said.

Theobald urged the BFC to follow the issue carefully and consider alternative sources of revenue. A Parking Steering Committee consisting of students, faculty and staff was formed Friday.

Online classes and the restructuring of physical facilities in the summer were also mentioned as potential revenue-increasing initiatives.

“Unless something changes with the state economy, we’re going to be looking at a lot of these things,” Theobald said.

Fred Glass, vice president of intercollegiate athletics, delivered a report about the state of IU Athletics.

Glass said future activities will focus on core priorities, including achieving academically, remaining compliant and performing well.

“You’ll see that as we move forward, retaining, and in appropriate cases seeking out new outstanding coaches, will be on the top of our list,” he said.

Glass assured the BFC that IU Athletics is making every effort to remain in compliance with recruiting, academic and Title IV regulations.

Despite the recent news of a secondary NCAA violation involving freshmen basketball players Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Peter Jurkin, he said the department is making progress with mandatory compliance meetings.

The investments and efforts have paid off, Glass said, and it is evident in the teams’ performances. He named some of the most notable recent accomplishments, including eight conference champion team wins since Jan. 2009, many Big Ten players and coaches of the year named and medals awarded to Hoosiers during each Olympics since 2002.

“And, of course, everyone knows about men’s basketball with the largest win turnaround in school history,” Glass said.

He said the team’s success has helped the department push forward with the first price increase in Varsity Club donation levels in nine years.

The IU Varsity Club is the fundraising organization for IU Athletics to benefit student athletes. There are many levels of donations, and members whose donations allow them to enjoy higher levels are entitled to better season tickets.

“We authorized it in not-so-good of a time,” he said. “I was wondering, ‘Oh my God, should we really be doing this?’ But we really got lucky that things are going well.”

Associate Vice President of Human Resources Dan Rives also addressed the BFC on a current health care concern.

Premier Healthcare, a major provider in Bloomington, is no longer part of Anthem’s network after a deadlocked negotiation process.

Rives encouraged Anthem subscribers to remain patient and hopeful that Premier will rejoin the network, but he said there are plenty of other good doctors in Bloomington still in the network.

“Negotiations are at a very stressful point, and we don’t like it, but it goes on all around the United States and all over Indiana,” he said.