SOUTHEAST BUDGET PANEL ENDORSES ATHLETICS CUTS

The Budget Review Committee at Southeast Missouri State University Monday narrowly upheld its earlier recommendation to cut $250,000 from the school's intercollegiate athletic budget for the 1993 fiscal year.

The committee comprised of administrators, faculty, staff and students voted 12 to 11 against a motion by university Provost Leslie Cochran to rescind the group's March 16 budget-cutting recommendation.

That action came at the conclusion of a 3-hour meeting of the budget committee, which serves as an advisory body to the university president.

The vote followed lengthy discussion, during which Richard McDuffie, the university's athletic director, argued against such a budget cut. University administrators had opposed the cost-cutting move.

Committee members did agree to eliminate certain scholarships for a savings of $92,308, eliminate the incidental fee waiver or discount for spouses and modify the discount for university employees.

Under the recommendation, university employees would now have to pay 10 percent of the in-state tuition charge to take university undergraduate classes and 30 percent for graduate courses.

The committee by consensus elected not to change its earlier recommendation for a $4 per credit hour hike in tuition for the coming fiscal year, a move that would raise the incidental fee for in-state students from $74 to $78.

The university's Board of Regents voted last week to delay action on the tuition proposal until the budget committee had time to consider last-minute, cost-cutting moves suggested by student leaders.

Mark Ellis, a student who serves on the budget committee, proposed Monday to cut nearly $430,000 from the tentative budget. He said such cuts would mean only a $2 per credit hour hike would be needed.

But university officials disputed some of the budget figures presented by Ellis and indicated that many of the suggested cuts had already been accounted for.

Ken Dobbins, vice president for finance and administration and chairman of the budget committee, said the tuition hike had already been carefully studied and was "based on many, many compromises."

University officials have indicated that a fee hike and cost-cutting moves are needed to meet projected expenditures of $50 million for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. That figure includes salary hikes, which have yet to be finalized.

As to the athletic budget, tentative figures had indicated Southeast would be spending $1.8 million on athletics in the coming fiscal year, assuming that $250,000 was not cut from that operation.

But faculty members on the budget committee contended that Southeast cannot afford such an expense during these belt-tightening times. They said the university should be able to generate more outside revenue for athletics and cut costs to generate budget savings.

"Football is a revenue eater here," said committee member Phil Finney, pointing out that Southeast's football program generates only $60,000 in ticket sales.

Finney said that in looking at areas to cut, committee members could not justify the athletic budget. "Yours is the fattest pig on the farm," he said.

Committee member Walt Lilly said the issue is one of money. "The question is not whether any of us support athletics or not."

Allen Gathman, chairman of the Faculty Senate and a member of the budget committee, said the institution's funding commitment to athletics was supposed to be capped at 3 percent of the operating budget. But on a budget of $48 million, a $1.8 million allocation for athletics is more than 3 percent, he pointed out.

Gathman suggested that with a $250,000 cut in the athletic budget, the tuition hike could be lowered from $4 per credit hour to $3. But the proposal never came up for a vote.

McDuffie said it would be hard to cut a quarter of a million dollars out of the athletic budget at a school that is now competing at the NCAA Division I level.

"We in athletics believe we make a reasonable contribution to the university," he said.

Within the Ohio Valley Conference, he said, Southeast ranks as the top revenue producer with total gross revenues of more than $1.48 million, which includes ticket sales, summer camps, television rights and concessions.

"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a very substantial cut," he pointed out.

He said university admission counselors have indicated that Division I athletics helps promote the university and is a factor in attracting students.

Even if Southeast had remained in Division II competition, McDuffie said, added costs such as medical insurance and drug testing would have increased the athletic budget by $142,000.

He said the university must field teams in a certain number of sports to meet both NCAA and Ohio Valley Conference requirements.

"If I had to cut, I guess one option would be to cut sports programs," McDuffie said.

But he contended cutting football and gymnastics, for example, would end up costing the university.

Eliminating football would save $519,346, but the university would lose more than $624,000 in student fees, the result of losing 100 football players who would not have otherwise been enrolled at Southeast.

Cutting gymnastics would save $56,635, he said, but the loss of income from student fees would amount to nearly $121,000.

"I don't believe that retreating back to Division II is the answer," he said.