On December 27, a weekly newspaper published an article describing some of the severe problems faced by a local state university’s athletics program.  The headline stated that the program ran a $13.5 million deficit for the 2004-2005 fiscal year, its highest deficit ever.  The income shortfall has forced the university to pay the difference from its general fund, which also pays for a variety of other campus programs.  The deficit has grown in spite of the recent success of the football team – ordinarily thought to be the major source of revenue for Division I-A program – which has posted five straight winning seasons.  Administrators hope to reduce the deficit through endowments and renegotiated apparel, licensing and marketing contracts.  Whereas administrators and alumni argue that a top-notch athletics program is necessary for school spirit and the overall identity of the university, faculty members complain that the subsidy can be better used on academic programs.

            The university in question is not any sort of Podunk State U or corrupt football factory.  The school in question is the University of California at Berkeley – a highly prestigious, major research institution that commonly serves as a model for the University of Houston as we advance in stature.  I do not intend to criticize UC Berkeley or to suggest that there is anything unusually wrong with its athletics program.  The point is that UC Berkeley’s problems are common to most NCAA Division I-A schools.  There is an athletics coaches arms race that results in such craziness as the eight-year, $32-million contract Nick Saban recently signed with the University of Alabama to coach its football team.  The NCAA basketball tournament known affectionately as “March Madness” now generates the highest amount of advertising revenues of any televised sporting event – even more than the Super Bowl.

            The faculty senate at the University of Houston is appropriately responding to these issues at two levels.  At the local level, we help staff the Athletics Advisory Committee, which monitors student-athletes’ admissions standards, the quality of their academic work, the athletics department budget, and other related issues.  At the national level, the faculty senate is a member of the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA).  The members of this organization are Division I-A universities.  The coalition generates policy statements that serve two functions:  to enhance communication among member schools in order to share “best practices” for managing increasingly complex athletics programs; and to inform and impact the NCAA policies governing intercollegiate athletics.  For example, COIA is supporting a movement to have the NCAA seek a federal antitrust exemption for college sports. Such an exemption could help defuse the athletics arms by capping coaches' salaries and other skyrocketing expenses.

            The University of Houston will and should continue to field Division I-A teams, just as most of the major universities we emulate do.  Our job as faculty is to help assure that athletics at UH fit our culture, our means, and the academic needs of all our students.

Joseph A. Kotarba
Faculty Senate President