Athletics trims nearly $500K
CMU 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 pay increases given to several of the coaches. “Obviously, the more revenue we can bring in will offset this deficit we had to make 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 the 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 the lost money through various means, including alumni donations and fund-raising events. He 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 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 residence halls during the preseason.
Basketball Head Coach Jay Smith said the $14,000 supplies and equipment reduction is just another problem capable of solving.
“It will affect us, but you still have got to find a way to do your job,” Smith 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 returfing 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.
