Athletics makes $464,167 sacrifice
Greg BurghardtCMU athletics endured another series of stringent budget cuts, as the university attempts to make up for lost appropriations.
Athletics Director Herb Deromedi said the cuts, which took effect July 1, totaled $464,167.
“Our cuts were affected by salaries,” Deromedi said, referring to the pay increases given to several of the coaches. “Obviously, the more revenue we can bring in will offset this deficit we had to make to our cuts.”
The bulk of the reductions came from the elimination of 13 scholarships, which totaled $202,385.
Deromedi said every sport will have the same amount of scholarships it had previously.
“We’re not taking anything away from any team,” he said. “We’ve taken the value of 13 scholarships and reduced that amount. We’re taking scholarship dollars.”
The football team was hit hardest of all the sports by the budget setbacks, as $22,000 was taken out of its supplies and equipment category.
Head Coach Mike DeBord said they’re going to try to raise money through various means, including alumni donations and fund-raising events.
“What we’re going to do is make better use of the funds that we have,” he said. “We do purchase a lot of equipment for the year, so we’re going to have to reduce that a little bit.”
DeBord said his main concern was that the cuts didn’t affect the players.
“We want it to be things we can do without. We don’t want to feed them a bologna sandwich before a contest,” he said.
Men’s Cross Country Head Coach Craig Fuller said his goal is to rely on alumni contributions to make up the difference left by the $5,000 cut from the cross country and track budget.
“If we don’t raise $5,000 to $8,000, we’ll have to take a step back and cut from our travel budget,” Fuller said. “I’m afraid of losing more than we’ve already lost because I can’t keep going back to the well.”
Fuller said he is confident the alumni will come through and help out.
Field Hockey Head Coach Cristy Freese said she looked at many alternative ways to trim costs, but decided nothing would be cut from the athletes themselves.
“We weren’t going to do anything to hurt ourselves competing,” Freese said. “If we need new goalkeeping equipment, we’re going to get it.”
Freese said she cut a few recruiting trips, but the biggest thing was the players no longer stay in the dorms in the preseason.
Basketball Head Coach Jay Smith said the $14,000 supplies and equipment reduction is just another problem he is capable of solving.
“It will affect us, but you still got to find a way to do your job,” he said. “I just look at it as a challenge to do a good job with the limited resources we have.”
Deromedi said one way the athletics department plans on helping the university is by generating revenue to cover the supplies and equipment costs.
“We feel if we can handle our deferred maintenance regularly, we won’t have to take from the university,” Deromedi said. “We’ve been operating up until this time with zero dollars in our budget for supplies and equipment.”
The deferred maintenance would include things like re-turfing the football field and fixing the track when it needs it, Deromedi said. CMU also plans on raising its ticket prices for sporting events. However, students still will not have to pay for events.
Soccer Head Coach Mark Salisbury said his program is in a unique situation because it’s only been at CMU for five years, so alumni donations aren’t as plentiful.
“We need to get creative and find ways to tighten the belt a little bit,” Salisbury said.
Some of those creative means of generating money are camps and soccer clinics and a youth tournament in the Indoor Athletic Complex during the winter.
MAC Commissioner Rick Chryst said athletics programs across the country are facing similar budget reductions.
“If you surveyed all 117 athletics directors, finances are their No. 1 issue across the board,” he said. “It’s a really tough environment right now. Everyone is trying to manage diminishing finances.”
| Account name | Supplies & Equipment (in dollars) |
|---|---|
| Scholarships | $202,385 |
| Football | $22,000 |
| Men’s Basketball | $14,000 |
| Baseball | $5,000 |
| Men’s Track and Cross Country | $5,000 |
| Wrestling | $3,000 |
| Women’s Basketball | $9,000 |
| Volleyball | $6,000 |
| Softball | $5,000 |
| Women’s Track and Cross Country | $5,000 |
| Gymnastics | $3,000 |
| Soccer | $6,000 |
| Field Hockey | $4,000 |
| Total from sports: | $289,385 |
| Source: Public Relations and Marketing | |
