YSU's athletic budget less than comparable universities

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State University’s Intercollegiate Athletics budget is lower than other comparable universities in the same conferences, according to a document distributed to YSU trustees.

The document, on university letterhead, was obtained by The Vindicator. Its distribution follows the university’s faculty union rejection last week of a tentative agreement for a new three-year contract.

After that vote, YSU-Ohio Education Association leaders argued that while many departments across campus saw cuts this year, including a 9.6 percent reduction to academic affairs, the university’s intercollegiate athletics budget saw a 3.6 percent increase.

Union members wore buttons reading, “Academics Above Athletics.”

YSU’s fiscal year 2015 Intercollegiate Athletics budget is $14 million.

“YSU spends nearly $5 million less annually for athletics than benchmark institutions in the Missouri Valley Football Conference,” the document said. “In men’s and women’s basketball, YSU spends $1 million less annually that universities in the Horizon League. Over the past decade, the average total expenditures for all MVFC football programs have grown at a pace significantly higher than YSU.”

The union said in an email Friday that YSU’s faculty agrees with trustees and the administration that intercollegiate athletics play an important role to the university, students and the community.

“The purpose of our message ‘Academics Above Athletics’ is not to diminish the athletic department, but rather, to encourage the board of trustees and the administration to stop diminishing academics,” the email said.

All YSU students including student-athletes are enrolled to earn an education, the union contends.

“The future success of our students, as well as the future success of this institution, depends primarily on the quality of our academic programs,” the union’s email says.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.