Hundreds offer views on UI cuts

MOSCOW, Idaho – Hundreds of comments have flooded the University of Idaho administration in response to the school’s special task force recommendations for erasing a deficit of up to $36 million over the next several years.

One of the prevalent suggestions was abandoning the university’s participation in Division I-A sports and reverting to Division I-AA – a proposal University President Tim White has already soundly rejected.

“What it tells me is that people are really engaged in this and want their opinions to be heard,” he said.

White, who expects to make preliminary recommendations on cutbacks in January, said the comments came from all over the state as well as the campus and were generally constructive and analytical.

The president reiterated his past statements opposing any immediate change in the status of Vandal athletics despite the emphasis of many suggestion writers that money could be saved, especially in the travel budget, if the school returned to Division I-AA.

White has said he is open to all suggestions – but that one has no basis.

He recently told the University Foundation that the program has been plagued by inconsistency. Four presidents, three athletic directors and three football coaches have been involved since the move to Division I-A in 1996.

White contended the task force recommendation was distorted by the media to suggest it supported a move back to Division I-AA.

“Make every effort to be successful at the Division I level” was White’s reading of the task force report, and if that fails, then move back. Until then, a unified effort will be made to prove to critics that each dollar spent on athletics is an investment, he said.

But leaders of the Idaho Federation of Teachers are urging members of the faculty to support a declaration denying the athletic department any state-appropriated money.

“Our critics say that we should not wage class warfare against other staff members” in the athletic department, federation President Nick Gier said in a letter to White. “But we wish to reiterate that athletics is not an integral part of our mission.”

The faculty council has also asked to be more involved in the oversight of athletics, another recommendation of the deficit-assessing task force.

White said he would consider a program’s contribution to the university experience – not just whether it makes money. He won’t even say academic cuts are inevitable.

“We’re nowhere close to saying that necessarily has to happen,” he said.