Washington State University’s athletics department is in a major budget deficit. On Nov. 13, a future action item proposal was delivered to the university’s Board of Regents by Stacy Pearson, finance and administration vice president and chief financial officer, and Pat Chun, director of athletics. Addressing the WSU Athletic Department’s accumulated debt of over $120 million, the proposal claims to replenish the university’s damaged athletic budget due to previous budget deficits and effects from COVID-19, while urging the Board of Regents to adopt a long-term fiscal recovery plan for the 2022 school year. However, this presents a few questions, where will they get this money from and how is it expected to impact students?
In summary, the Athletics Department aims to replenish its budget by subsidizing its programs with the yearly diversion of $2 to $3 million in undistributed university funds, as the money is expected to be pulled from all WSU campuses. WSU’s Faculty Senate Executive Committee promptly stated their opposition to the proposal, while submitting their own written argument to the Board of Regents to reject the diversion of university funds to support the WSU Athletics programs.
While university faculty have shown concern, so have student leaders across the state. WSU Vancouver’s Associated Students of WSU Vancouver president, Armando Antonino, has been working with his counterparts from other ASWSU organizations across the WSU system, to address concerns from the student body attached to the athletics proposal. WSU’s student government council convened on Feb. 11 for a legislative agenda meeting, where they discussed the proposal as one of their agenda items. After much deliberation, Antonino says there is no exact information known about how much each campus is expected to pay towards the deficit. However, faculty members quickly assumed the required funds to subsidize athletics programs might come from their own budgets, according to Antonino. Even just this year, several departments, including the administration, were asked to reduce their budgets by about 10%.
Another repercussion to the proposal is the inability to fill vacant positions on all WSU campuses if the athletics proposal is approved. As the athletics program plans to subsidize budgets from all campuses, this would mean reduced funds for professors, and cause class sizes to increase. Luckily, as Antonino explains, WSU Vancouver has a money reserve to pull from, so academics might not be subject to budget cuts, but these repercussions are still possible to occur elsewhere.
On the other hand, the athletics department does make its case when stating the value and importance of WSU sports programs. For years, WSU Pullman football has been a strong figurehead within the Pacific-12 Athletic conference. Pac-12 is a conference that includes 24 sports, and 12 universities competing in a variety of subdivisions to rank top college athletics. Without maintaining the Pac-12 membership, according to the athletic budget proposal, “All coaches, staff, and sports programs could be eliminated and still not generate enough savings to offset the loss of these revenues made possible by membership in the Pac-12 conference. Simply stated: Pac-12 membership is essential to the financial viability of intercollegiate athletics at WSU.” There is significant value in the athletics department for many students, which Antonino says, makes the situation complicated.
“There are definitely many things to consider when deciding on the proposal, and another thing will be evaluating the institution and what it needs. If athletics is not to have these $2 to $3 million dollars to help pay for their operations and deficits, athletics will get hit really hard, and that might potentially lead to WSU leaving Pac-12. … I was looking at the budget, and Pac-12 is definitely a huge money generator for the Pullman campus,” Antonino said.
However, this might only be a temporary solution to a much bigger problem. By only asking for $2 to $3 million dollars annually in university funds, as of now, there is limited time for the athletics department to recover appropriately according to the Faculty Senate.
Antonino and many of his ASWSU counterparts side with the fact that taking money from students who do not benefit directly from athletics might not be the best idea.
“Those games happen on the weekend, and they’re extracurricular things. It’s complementary to the main reason we’re here, which is to get a degree and be educated. So, when that affects your regular student who might not do that type of extracurricular activity, that’s really where I see a dilemma and a problem. I don’t think it’s fair as a student,” Antonino said.
As of now, there are two sides to the same coin while many either support or oppose the proposal. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee is currently collecting signatures and community input, asking people to sign their names to an online docket that will be presented to the Board of Regents.
To decide what is best for the university, the Board of Regents will convene in March to hear the budget proposal, and are expected to evaluate various claims for or against the proposal. If approved later this spring, the athletics budget fiscal recovery plan is likely to go into effect after the next fiscal year, since the university is not yet in a position to initiate programs related to the proposal.
“We have to wait and see. No one is wanting sports to be canceled, that’s a really good thing to say. No one wants ‘no more sports.’ The thing here is finding a way to pay off the debt in an appropriate manner that doesn’t affect everyone’s education,” Antonino said. “How they do that, is a challenge on its own.”
Olivia is a senior studying English at WSU Vancouver.