President Floyd announces WSU budget

by Craig Powers on May 1, 2009 5:03 PM PDT

Faced with the daunting task of cutting 54 million dollars from the biennium budget, Washington State University officials chose not to make sweeping cuts across the board, instead going for the option of cutting out some programs entirely. Theatre and dance, rural sociology, the German major, and sport management will no longer be offered as options for incoming freshmen.

So how will the Athletics Department be affected by the budget shortfall? $350,000 will be dropped, which is a little more than 1% of the department's annual operating costs. That is the equivalent of about 10 full-ride scholarships over the two year period of time. To make up for the loss, Beasley Coliseum will become self-supported and not receive any help from state funding.

Overall, it could have been worse. The overall WSU budget was slashed 10.8%, while the athletics budget will actually suffer a less than 1% hit (when spreading the $350,000 cut over the two years the budget covers). Athletics were spared for the most part because they do not receive any direct assistance from the state. The help they get comes from tuition waivers provided by the university.

As for sport management and the other programs cut, there is one silver lining. ~~The students who are currently in the major will get to finish their program. Only incoming students will not be able to work towards a degree in one of those fields.~~ As pointed out by MLips in the comments, only students who have certified in their major will be able to complete the program, leaving most of the underclassmen out in the cold.

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Just for clarification

Only those students certified in the program can continue (basically Junior status), those who have spent two years working toward certification cannot continue, which is close to half of the students taking classes right now. A lot of my students had turned in their application for certification two days ago, being told the program was not being cut. Bad deal…

Athletics relies heavily on these students to work at events in exchange for practicum credit (free!). Baseball uses around 10 students a game and football has close to 20 per game. So this cut hurts more than just the students getting the shaft in the program.

by MLips on May 1, 2009 5:45 PM PDT reply actions

Thanks

Didn’t get that from the articles I read.

This is where per game statistics go to die.

CougCenter

by Craig Powers on May 1, 2009 7:41 PM PDT up reply actions

Above comment is regarding sport management

by MLips on May 1, 2009 5:59 PM PDT reply actions

Current SpMgt Student

Being a current SpMgt Student this is the E-mail we received…

You will be receiving an official announcement from your faculty regarding the likely cut of the sport management program. This was a surprise to us. Certified students will be allowed to complete their programs but we will not accept new certifications for fall unless things change before June 1, the budget finalization deadline.

There is a facebook group that tells more about what can be done and who to contact. As MLips stated, I don’t think they realize how much practicum students are used. They are going to have to start paying people to fill the positions that were previously free labor. There is still a possibility of saving the program because it is not official until the final numbers come out June 1st, but its lookin pretty bad for the future of the program.

by WSU TRU COUG on May 1, 2009 6:38 PM PDT reply actions

This whole thing is a shame

My question, and maybe someone can answer this, is that if we’re running so short the next two years that we need to cut out programs, what on Earth are we doing still constructing buildings whose price tags range in the tens of millions?

by Grady Clapp on May 1, 2009 9:31 PM PDT reply actions

And in addition to sport management

I think people should rally behind theater arts, a contingent that also has a facebook group up.

I can’t tell you how annoying it is that the first thing on the chopping block when stuff like this happens is always the fine arts. Of course in terms of sheer magnitude of money, engineering is getting absolutely bludgeoned. So really no one wins.

by Grady Clapp on May 1, 2009 9:34 PM PDT up reply actions

These are all tough decisions

WSU has been bracing all year for budget cuts. You have to know decisions to make cuts is brutal for all concerned. These are all difficult decisions and if there was another way to go they would have done it.

My best wishes to everyone impacted by the coming budget cuts all year and the decisions that came down this week.

by BornCoug on May 1, 2009 10:07 PM PDT up reply actions

Somebody smarter than me can probably answer this

But my guess is that it’s a matter of accounting. Capital building projects — fueled largely from donations — are very different than the operating budget.

CougCenter

by Jeff Nusser on May 1, 2009 11:42 PM PDT up reply actions

There's someone smarter than you Nuss?

I don’t believe it.

This is where per game statistics go to die.

CougCenter

by Craig Powers on May 2, 2009 12:04 AM PDT up reply actions

Odd

That’s what my students say.

CougCenter

by Jeff Nusser on May 2, 2009 6:45 PM PDT up reply actions

For anyone that didn't hear

UW is cutting the entire Swim team to cope with their cuts.

by GoCougs on May 1, 2009 10:48 PM PDT reply actions

Maybe they should have cut the football team.

by cfred on May 1, 2009 11:11 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

One add'l thing about the Sport Management program...

is that many student-athletes seek out this program for their major and/or minor. I’m not going to try and say its a huge recruiting tool or anything, but there may be some backlash, especially with our younger current student-athletes who haven’t declared their majors yet.

As a Sport Management alum, I’ve always thought Spt Mgmt should be under the Business umbrella rather than Education because it would probably receive better funding and be protected a little more, but regardless – it sucks to know your program may no longer be offered for future Cougs (and when you practically have completed half of your Masters in the program and were hoping to eventually go back and play clean-up :-0 )

I plan on writing a letter to Floyd and Co. – as many alum should consider doing – but unfortunately need to figure out the right phrasing since my voice may be diminished with my current employment status (or lack there of…).

by LeaveItToWeaver on May 2, 2009 2:50 AM PDT reply actions