[Vision2020] UI Backs Off From $4 million for Athletics

[Scott Dredge]

Dr. Gier,

The two major revenue producing college sports are football and men's basketball.  The sport of football did not exist in America until 1869.  Basketball was not invented until and 1891.  The Morrill Act of 1862 saying "nothing about athletics" is an extremely weak argument to raise in regard to budgeting of the athletic department.  This type of logic is as ineffective as stating "nowhere in the Constitution is the word 'abortion' mentioned" as a justification for states to enact and enforce laws criminalizing abortion.

Your second point that 'you can see no reason that UI athletics cannot live within the limits of its generous annual subsidy of $949,500' comes off to me that you simply lack vision.  Idaho is in the midst of taking the unprecedented action of moving from FBS to FCS and thus will be experiencing a significant downturn in revenue.  They're heading into very troubled waters and maybe to your delight.  Certainly not mine.  I can attest that the three endowments for the U of I that I created to fund academic scholarships (and I received a record 10 thank you notes this year from scholarship recipients) can be directly credited to Idaho's move from Division I-AA to Division I athletics.  You can probably count how much more money I'll be donating on zero hands.  Be my guest in taking credit for this turn-about.

-Scott



________________________________
From: Nicholas Gier <ngier006 at gmail.com>
To: vision2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2017 1:16 PM
Subject: [Vision2020] UI Backs Off From $4 million for Athletics

Dear Visionaries:

Both faculty and students can take credit for this turn-about.  Here are excerpts from a revised version of my column that appeared in the Argonaut yesterday. One faculty senator noted that the Morrill Act of 1862, which established our land-grant institutions (of which UI is one), said nothing about athletics.

UI Finance Vice-President Brian Foisy estimates a deficit between $900,000 and $1,000,000.  The athletics department had originally requested $1 million a year for four years to bring the budget out of the red.

After some hard questioning at last Tuesday’s Faculty Senate meeting and a revealing investigative report by a UI student (see below), Vice-President Foisy has now announced that the request will be $950,000 for this year alone.  . . .

Vice-President Foisy has argued that all campus units require a subsidy, but those faculty and staff contribute to the core mission of the University. Land grant universities such as the UI were authorized by the Morrill Act 1862, signed by President Abraham Lincoln. Nowhere in this legislation nor in the UI Constitution is athletics described as essential to the function of these institutions.

Over the 45 years that I have been associated with the UI, I have seen my department and many others cut their budgets to the bone—some have no travel money and some have no faculty telephones—so I see no reason that UI athletics cannot live within the limits of its generous annual subsidy of $949,500.

--

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

-Greek proverb

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your own understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.

--Immanuel Kant


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