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A postscript on UT cost-cutting
My story in Sunday’s paper about cost-cutting at the University of Texas touched briefly on efforts to save money in athletics.
To elaborate a bit: The men’s and women’s athletics programs are hoping to shave “hundreds of thousands” of dollars a year from their spending, said Chris Plonsky, the women’s athletic director. The goal is to do so without affecting recruiting and other aspects of the university’s competitiveness.
A major focus is on airline travel, hotels and meals, Plonsky said. For example, routine flights must be booked earlier, to take advantage of discounts. Efforts have been ramped up to drive a harder bargain on charter flights and hotels as well.
The athletics programs at UT are essentially self-supporting, thanks largely to income from football. A portion of the $110 million in total annual revenue for athletics is forked over to the UT president’s office for academic purposes.
Here’s how Mary Knight, associate vice president and budget director, explained this and other revenue transfers from athletics:
“Effective fiscal year 2008-09, Athletics provides a minimum of $1M per year for presidential initiatives. Prior to fiscal year 2008-09, the contribution was about $600K per year. In years with exceptional income, such us the 2005-06 football national championship, additional gifts will be made to promote presidential priorities and programs. An additional $1.5M was provided for presidential priorities at that time.
“Additionally, Athletics transfers about $2.8M to cover central administrative support costs provided to Athletics, and to support the University Bands and improvements to the Jamail Swim Center.”
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By More transparency
October 7, 2009 7:46 PM | Link to this
Did UT officials make a phone call to the editors asking that all public interest stories related to UT recently be removed? Where are the news stories? Coverup Perry must still have weilding influence.
By Bill Duff
October 8, 2009 9:10 AM | Link to this
Yeah, thanks Ralph. “Presidential Initiatives”, that really clears matters up a lot… NOT!
By Bill Duff
October 9, 2009 4:23 PM | Link to this
Which presidential initiatives, Ralph?
Follow the money, Ralph!
Show me the money, Ralph.