Photo by Mark Campbell/Sun Star
Joann Kump finishes her race in one of the swim meets earlier this season.

Photo by Kaitlin Wilson/Sun Star
Freshman Kevin Petovello battles for the puck against a Michigan State player in early November.

Photo by Kortnie Westfall/Sun Star
Keven Campbell goes for the rebound during the Top of the World Classic in November.

Athletics and Campus Recreation Revenue by Source FY 07 - $5,406,498

Athletics and campus recreation FY 07 Expenditures by Type - $5,900,475

By Jessica Hill and Lacie Grosvold

In December, UAF Chancellor Steve Jones signed off on a new $8-per-unit student fee funding college athletics and student recreation. The fee is an overall increase of $66 for students taking 12 credits and less for students taking fewer credits.

The fee was implemented to help balance out the department’s $493,097 deficit out of a $5.9 million budget, and to help athletics keep up with rising costs in the future,

While the fee has drawn strong support from college administrators and members of the community, some student representatives are not as enthusiastic. ASUAF president Jake Hamburg and vice president Danielle Ryder wrote a memo to Jones, expressing their displeasure at the fee increase and urging him to take a different route.

Hamburg and Ryder said in their memo, “We need to be certain that the athletic department is valuable enough to students to justify such an extraordinary fee increase.” They also cited that a lot of students do not attend games as it is and that it was unfair to implement a fee without getting more student feedback.

The student body representatives asked that the decision be delayed for student input.

In a return letter, Jones refused to delay the fee’s implementation, stating “the decision to revise fees was not made quickly or taken lightly, nor is an increased fee our only means to address the chronic operating deficit. We are also looking at other revenue sources.”

UAF alumnus Bart LeBon was one of several community members to meet with Athletics Director Forrest Karr to discuss ways of improving the fiscal condition of the athletics department.

In a letter to Jones supporting the fee proposal he said, “Our group was in full support of this funding concept. Several of us were surprised to hear that such a funding mechanism was not already in place at UAF.”

The decision to implement the fee came after reviewing many different options including cutting pay for employees, cutting scholarships, and eliminating some travel, Karr said. He explained that even with a combination of his proposed cuts, the department would still be struggling financially.

Karr said in his research to find a solution to the financial problems of the university, he found that educational institutions of similar size with Division II programs often fund athletics partly with a student fee. UAA had a $6 per credit fee that was recently increased to $8 per credit.

Vice Chancellor for University Advancement Jake Poole said the department is taking a three-pronged approach to solve the problem — using the fee, increasing ticket prices for public use of the SCR and reductions within the department.

Athletics at a crossroads

There are many factors that play into the financial problems associated with Nanook sports. In 2004, the university adopted a policy that required units operating at a loss to adopt payment plans. Karr, who assumed his post heading UAF’s Athletics and Campus Recreation Department in 2005, has struggled finding solutions to meet his unit’s current five-year payback schedule. The department made a $50,000 payment in 2005, $90,000 in 2006 and $126,350 in 2007.

Karr has made a business plan to help sustain finances and set goals for different areas of the department. “It’s just taking a little bit of time to implement them.”

He also explained that some of the assumptions were outdated and it’s hard to anticipate what was going to happen.

“The financial thing has just gotten a little bit worse, a little bit faster than what I had expected,” Karr said.

The athletic department spends 39 percent of its dollars on labor. This expense has increased as a percentage of the department’s budget in recent years as the cost of health care benefits increased dramatically. The department is currently staffed in line with a Division II model drafted for the D-II Athletics Directors Association. In addition, department administrators are actually paid below the Great Northwest Athletic Conference average, Karr said.

Aside from proposing new student fees, the department already made a cost-savings change from within and is considering others.

For the last two years, the athletic department funded summer school for student athletes. Starting this year, athletes will not receive summer aid, which is expected to decrease department’s expenses by $24,000 each year. Hockey, volleyball, and women’s basketball had the largest number of students who took advantage of the summer funding. Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance, Pamm Hubbard, understands these sports will be hit, but believes there wasn’t much of a choice.

“I think that those three programs would agree that the alternative of losing scholarships is much worse than not paying for summer school,” she said.

Rising airfares squeeze budget

Due to UAF’s remote location, it’s no surprise that travel is a financial burden. Travel costs make up approximately 23 percent of the athletic spending at UAF — $1.36 million last year — while the NCAA average is just 7 percent.

Fairbanks is served by only one major airline year-round, and the lack of competition boosts airfares. On the weekend of Jan. 23 through Jan. 27, a round-trip ticket to Seattle on Alaska Airlines costs $648.70. A similar trip leaving from Anchorage on the same weekend would cost just $376.30.

With fuel prices on the increase, airlines have responded by hiking fares, making the travel budget even pricier. Athletic department statistics show that airline tickets have increased from 11 to 12 cents per mile flown within the past year. This adds up to a 9 percent increase per ticket.

Other schools in the GNAC can usually use buses to travel to conference competitions, significantly reducing costs. UAF also must pay other GNAC teams for their travel costs to Fairbanks, as stipulated in their agreement with the conference.

Coaches and administrators are working with their team’s schedules to save money and there are plans to reduce team travel next year, Karr said.

Gender equity drives scholarship costs

Growth in the costs attached to athletic scholarships remains a problem.

For the 2006-2007 academic year the university spent $914,988 compared to the $642,360 in 2004-2005. The increase reflects the department’s new investment in women’s sports, required by gender equality standards set forth under a federal law known as Title IX.

In 2004-2005, females received 16.61 scholarships versus 30.01 offered in 2006-2007. Adding the women’s swim team and focusing on Title IX deficiencies cost more money, but Karr said the entire athletic department is content with that decision.

“I’ve just done that because it’s right,” he said. “We are 35 years since Title IX and we weren’t in compliance, so we just had to find a way to do it.”

Overall, scholarships represent 16 percent of the department’s spending.

Initially Karr talked about eliminating anywhere from one half to two scholarships per team. However, because of Alaska’s location, these scholarships bring out-of-state students who wouldn’t normally attend UAF.

The average student-athlete is receiving scholarships to cover 53 percent of their college costs. This leaves 47 percent of due fees that funnel back to the university. These students also spend money for the cost of living in places like the Wood Center. Offering scholarships also has other benefits, such as increasing alumni support. Therefore, scholarships will be managed at current levels unless further reductions become necessary.

It isn’t uncommon for a university’s athletic department to find itself in a deficit situation. In 2000, the University of Michigan needed $1.4 million, while Montana State University faced a $1 million deficit in 2002.

UAF continues to look towards various options to help their situation. Poole intends to look beyond campus for additional athletic funding.

“I think where we haven’t done as much as we could, is in fundraising,” he said.

The university has had a development office for a year and half, and has been successful in raising money for general funding. However, Poole thinks its time to do more fundraising targeting athletics.

The athletic department is optimistic as it searches for the means to address the deficit.

“The biggest thing we need,” Hubbard said, “is for the students and the student athletes to understand the situation the department is in.”