Long-term business plan needs to be developed

PAST AND current UNM presidents Chaouki Abdallah and Garnett Stokes and the regents deserve plenty of credit for finally taking on the financial mismanagement of athletics and working to devise a plan to hold officials accountable for a balanced budget, like every other state government agency.

However, the draft plan described in a Journal story on April 11 contains a few disturbing recommendations that shift major athletic costs to students and other academic and support departments. For example, it suggests the university should subsidize $1 million in tuition waivers and room-and-board discounts for athletes. Those expenses will (likely) have to be borne by tuition increases for all students or cuts to academic programs. Many students, including new freshmen who are required to live on campus, and parents will pay for housing and meal discounts for athletes.

Another suggestion is to shift $400,000 in costs for academic advising and financial management to other UNM offices. In reality that means already overburdened academic advisors across the campus, and accountants and managers in other units, will have to pick up the slack. Increased costs for those services will have to be paid for by general university funds.

In addition, the $2.4 million annual debt payments for renovation of the Pit would be transferred from the Athletic Department to the taxpayers of New Mexico and increased student fees for many more years. When that debt was incurred, New Mexicans were promised that repayment would come from ticket revenue or big donors.

There is urgent need to develop a sustainable, long-term business plan that makes athletic programs selfsupporting and does not further burden taxpayers and students. However, continuing the traditional practice of simply shifting excessive costs from one account to another within the university does not contribute to a real solution to the problem. There are no easy answers, and President (Garnett) Stokes is right to warn that tough and painful decisions will be necessary. She and the regents should look realistically at other options, such as further capping the excessive salaries of football and basketball coaches, further cutting costs and perhaps downsizing to a different subdivision within NCAA Division I. KEN CARPENTER, PhD Albuquerque