CSULB
athletics receives priority IRA funding
By
Mandy Wright
On-line Forty-Niner
During
a time of skyrocketing fees and seemingly
endless tuition hikes, more and more students
are beginning to wonder exactly where their
money is going. One answer: the extracurricular
activities of others.
Buried
among the miscellaneous fees that make up
the tuition of every Cal State University
campus is an instructionally related activities
fee. The amount varies by campus, but the
purpose of the fee has remained the same
throughout the CSU system since it was established
about 20 years ago: to ease the demand on
Associated Student funds, while ensuring
that supplemental academic programs have
some type of stable funding.
Cal
State Long Beach’s yearly IRA fee
of $50 is on the low end of the CSU system’s
$81 average, but as the second largest campus
in the system, CSULB’s advantage is
in quantity. The IRA fund varies every year
with the student population, but roughly
35,000 students at $50 a pop equals one
big money pot. So what does it take for
a program to get its hands in the pot?
Before
a program can even be considered for IRA
funding, it has to meet certain criteria.
According to the executive order from the
CSU Office of the Chancellor, when the fee
was first established, “instructionally
related activities” must be partially
sponsored by an academic discipline or department,
integrally related to the department’s
coursework and considered essential to a
quality education and a valuable, hands-on
learning experience.
Once
those requirements are met, the program
must submit a proposal outlining how much
money they want and why they deserve it.
The proposals are reviewed by the IRA board,
composed of students, faculty and administrators,
which then invites each group to come make
its case in person. Months later, the decision
is announced and the program is awarded
some, all or none of its requested funding.
With
the process comes some degree of subjectivity.
While the board does use the formal criteria
to determine eligibility, a large portion
of the final decision is based simply on
the members’ opinions. The makeup
of the board changes every year, leaving
programs at the whim of each year’s
ensemble.
“Some
of it frankly comes down to establishing
a sense of priorities as far as what is
essential to the academic importance of
the university,” said Keith Polakoff,
associate vice president for graduate and
undergraduate studies and member of the
IRA board.
Although
the executive order does not require the
campus to fund any particular activity,
it does outline a number of examples, including
drama and musical productions, music and
dance performance, publications and intercollegiate
athletics, all of which apply for and typically
receive IRA funding at CSULB. Board members
stress the importance of the support this
funding lends to integral academic programs
at the university.
“If
you don’t have IRA funds in a program
like theatre, dance or music, the program
doesn’t exist,” Polakoff said.
As
a member of the board, Mike Hostetler, associate
vice president for student services and
dean of students, focuses on the educational
quality of any program being considered
for IRA funds.
“I’m
looking at, ‘What are students going
to learn?’” Hostetler said.
The
community service learning center on campus
offers students an academic experience unlike
any other. The program, which began in 1998,
integrates extracurricular community service
with a specific listing of academic courses
ranging from biology to social work. The
1,500 students enrolled in the program give
back to their community while gaining real-world
experience and reflecting on what they’ve
learned. At first glance, the center appears
to be just the type of program for which
the instructionally related activities fee,
included in every student’s tuition,
was designed.
“We
are perfect candidates [for IRA funding],”
said Raul Reis, director of the center.
The board that determines this funding,
however, begs to differ. Although the program
does receive IRA funding, the amount is
typically far less than requested. In 2003,
the center was awarded $7,000 -- just over
half of what it had originally asked for,
and 0.4 percent of the total IRA pot. The
program’s allocation in 2002 was even
lower at $5,500, only 40 percent of its
request that year.
The
community service learning center’s
situation is not unusual, according to Mike
Hostetler, who serves triple duty as associate
vice president for student services, dean
of students and IRA board member. Because
there are so many groups vying for IRA funds,
Hostetler said, programs “almost never”
receive 100 percent of their requests.
Reis
realizes that funding is in high demand
during a budget crisis like the one currently
facing the Cal State University system,
and said he is grateful for whatever the
program receives.
“We
are usually hoping for the full amount,
but we try to be realistic,” he said.
“We try to respect the fact that there
are other places on campus that might need
the money more.”
According
to the IRA summary of allocations reports
for the last four years, the department
of sports, athletics and recreation is one
of those places in need. Last year, the
athletic department received $767,000 in
IRA funds – more than all other applicants
combined, and over 40 percent of total allocated
IRA funds for 2003/2004. The previous year’s
allocation of $747,000 amounted to 46 percent
of the total.
The
program also has a high success rate in
obtaining the amount it requests. In 2002
and 2003, the athletic department received
100 percent of its requested funding, and
in 2004 that figure dropped only slightly
to 99 percent. So, while many programs “almost
never” receive as much as they request,
others almost always do.
According
to Hostetler, both new and established programs
apply for funding each year. A new program
which has not received funding in the past
requires tedious additional meetings and
special consideration on the part of the
board in order to determine whether or not
it should be added to the pool of applicants.
“Tried and true” programs, Hostetler
said, have a better chance of receiving
funding and are subjected to a less rigorous
application process.
In
the eyes of the board, the athletic department
is one of those tried and true programs.
Board member Keith Polakoff, associate vice
president for graduate and undergraduate
studies, admits that athletics consistently
receives a substantial amount of IRA funding.
However, neither Polakoff nor Hostetler
was certain about the reason behind this
decision, both attributing the matter to
“historical reasons” predating
either member’s term on the board.
Polakoff even considers the program a separate
matter from the rest of the requests. Once
the board sets aside the allocations it
has agreed to award the athletic department
each year, the remaining funds can be disbursed
among the 35 or so other applicants.
Ted
Kadowaki, who is in charge of applying for
IRA funds for the athletic department, said
that although IRA funds amount to only about
8 percent of the total athletic budget,
the department recognizes the substantial
amount of funding it is awarded and tries
to put its request in perspective.
“We
do get a pretty good percentage of the total,
and there are other very worthy programs
looking for money,” he said.
Kadowaki
also pointed to tradition as the basis for
the department’s request.
“We’ve
pretty much kept the request the same as
prior years,” he said.
In
fact, the athletic department broke tradition
in 2003/2004 when it applied for $777,000
– a $30,000 increase over previous
years. Polakoff said the increased request
was unexpected. After a Beach Pride fee
referendum was passed by CSULB students
in March of 2000, adding more than $1 million
to the athletic department’s annual
budget, the department agreed not to increase
its request in years to come, he said. Although
the IRA board did award part of the increase,
Polakoff said the upward trend will not
continue.
“We
had to make smaller allocations [for 2004/2005]
and one of the places that we cut was SAR
[the athletic department],” he said.
The
cuts, however, may be too little, too late.
Because of a drop in enrollment that was
unforeseen when the board made its allocations
this January, the IRA program has already
gone over budget this year. The deficit
was handled by a small reserve fund, but
Polakoff said the board will have to be
more careful in next year’s spending.
Another
option for the board may be to increase
the amount each student pays in IRA fees
to counteract the drop in enrollment. San
Diego State is currently looking into a
substantial IRA fee increase, from the current
$15 fee to $95 per semester, most of which
would go toward athletics. Hostetler said
that would be a last resort.
“We’re
trying to avoid raising fees beyond the
10 percent Gov. Schwarzenegger is requiring,”
he said.
In
this case, however, actions speak louder
than words. If “historical reasons”
continue to determine the substantial funding
awarded to groups like athletics, CSULB
might soon experience the highest fees in
its history.
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