Desiring to keep pace with the Ohio Valley Conference competition, the Eastern Athletic Department has requested increased student fees to maintain the university’s athletic quality and help negate a crumbling state budget.

The Student Senate on Wednesday will vote whether to approve athletic and grant in aid fees that will swell student sports expenses to $187.79 on July 1, 2008, the first day of Fiscal Year 2009.

Students pay for sports with two fees: the athletic fee that covers a portion of the operation costs, such as referees, travel and player meals; and the grant-in-aid fee, which helps pay for athletic scholarships.

The increases would hike the athletic fee from its current $63.50 to $87.65 in FY 2009, while the grant-in-aid would jump from $62 to $100.14. The boosts would help better fund things like meal stipends, team travel and game officials. The amounts proposed were lower than what the Athletic Department requested.

“We’re meeting them halfway,” said Larry Ward, student vice president for financial affairs, who served on the Student Senate’s Tuition and Fees Committee. “Athletics are a very positive thing here at Eastern, and we’d like to see them receive a good amount of money; however, we have to keep best interests of 11,000 students in mind.”

The proposed sweeping increases come at a time when Gov. Rod Blagojevich has sworn to slash higher education spending because he perceives colleges and universities to be inefficient.

As a result, some Eastern professors and academia question whether athletic funding, which draws from state and university-generated revenue, should increase when academics have been told to cut back.

The topic is sure to spark debate. The Senate’s Tuition and Fees Committee has already spent hours discussing the issue, and Ward said Tuesday he’s unsure of how the Senate will vote.

At the heart of this athletic funding issue is a philosophical debate of what begets what, similar to the age-old chicken or the egg argument.

Supporters of the increased fees point out successful sports teams provide free publicity for the university, boost alumni donations and swell the number of applications. By attracting attention on the playing fields, the classrooms will indirectly reap the benefits from larger shares of student fees and fundraising money.

Critics question whether the funding is being misallocated in this tight budget situation and if academic quality is given lower priority. They wonder: “Should funds go to the university athletics fee or to support things like undergraduate research, or to going to conferences where students would benefit directly?” asks Charles Delman, president of the University Professionals of Illinois, the faculty union.

Unlike some Illinois universities considered mid-majors, or those sports teams not from large athletic conferences like the Big 10 or the Pac-10, Eastern struggled this year resulting in an “If they can do it, why can’t we?” attitude. For example, the basketball team at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and the football team at Northern Illinois University both achieved high national rankings this year.

Some Panther sports achieved great success – the women’s soccer team qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year, the men’s indoor track team won the conference title for the fourth straight time – but many of the marquee sports that generate publicity and happy alumni stumbled.

The football team, with a 4-8 record, failed to make the Division I-AA playoffs for the first time since 1999. The men’s and women’s basketball teams both missed qualifying for the Ohio Valley Conference tournament – the first time both squads had failed – combining for 14 wins against 40 losses. The volleyball team also missed the conference tournament finishing eighth out of 11 teams.

Still, Director of Athletics Rich McDuffie said the increases only cover the basics because of inflations or salary increases.

“The amount of money we’re asking for in a five-year plan doesn’t get us to this next level,” he said.

In a phone interview last week, Nikki Kull, chair of the Student Senate Tuition and Fee committee, said although the committee understands athletics’ importance, they didn’t want to make them any more important than other organizations, especially for a five-year timeframe.

“You always have to be thinking of those in the future,” said Kull, a nonvoting member. “I’d be upset if people four years ago made the decision to set my fees high.”

Task Force created to find ways to deal with budget crunch

President Lou Hencken appointed the nine-person Task Force in the summer of 2003 to investigate possible ways to reduce the reliance on state appropriated dollars. Eastern receives approximately half of its total budget from the state, while the other half comes from university funds, such as tuition or student fees.

Task Force membership included five faculty members, two students, one staff member and Director of Athletics Rich McDuffie.

“I don’t think anyone on the Task Force ever thought we’d be competing with Duke in basketball,” Hencken said of the group’s intentions, “but we want to be able to compete with Murray (State), SEMO, Tennessee Tech and other teams in the OVC.”

Charles Delman, a math professor, said, “I would really love to see the day when our administration says no matter what we do our academic programs can’t be compromised.”

In January, the Task Force Chair Gail Richard presented to various campus entities their suggestions. One scenario severely reduced the university’s reliance upon state appropriation, but the burden on students jumped dramatically.

The other scenario, endorsed as the better one by the Task Force, called for a steady 4 percent increase over the next five fiscal years. The 4 percent increase was the watermark set for all of the 11 student fees by Shirley Stewart, acting vice president for student affairs.

“Instead of coming back to the students with a surprise each year,” Richard said last week. “Let’s have a long range vision here and be innovative in knowing where we want to get, but get there gradually so we just don’t dump it on students.”

The Task Force asked for a bolder increase in the grant-in-aid fee – some 6.1 percent – over the next five years. Athletics receives 80 percent of the grant-in-aid fee funds, the university scholarship funds are dispersed based upon academic or physical talents.

“You come down to: Why are you even offering (a sport), if you’re not going to scholarship it, and fund it appropriately?” Richard asked. “So what we said to the Office of Civil Rights, we’re committed to funding these sports, and we want to increase the funding in them.”

Cutting any sport, Richard previously said, would be difficult because of Title IX stipulations.

Actually, cutting a sport, an option the Task Force did investigate, could lose the university money, as athletes may not attend because of a lack of scholarship money, Richard said. One university honors student, she said, could only receive $1,000 for academics, but received $5,000 for running track.

Eastern offers 22 sports – a figure higher than any other university in Illinois or in the Ohio Valley Conference – that not only gives the campus a diverse number of athletics, but also ensures 463 student-athletes, many of whom pay for the majority of their school, stay here.

Packaged with the additional tuition and fees, the university also receives money through the NCAA revenue sharing program that grants funds based upon the number of sports and student-athletes.

While Eastern’s athletic budget ranks first in the OVC, the actual funding per sport ranks in the middle. Still, other schools, especially those struggling to attract strong enrollment, wish they had athletics as a forum to bring in tuition and fee money.

“All of us should be as smart as you guys and bring in more teams,” said Frank Harrell, the director of athletics at Tennessee Tech University, a school with 16 sports. “You can bring in more students you wouldn’t normally bring in.”