Athletic department facing budget cuts

With the economy not yet improving, many departments on the campus of Washburn University are having to deal with budget cuts. The Athletic Department isn’t any different.

 Budget cuts directly affect the people who benefit from the department taking the cuts. In the athletic department, the student-athletes are going to be the most affected by the budget cuts, unless the department can find away around that happening.

 “We are trying to only let the budget cuts affect the administrative side of our department. Everything we do here is for the student-athlete and we don’t want to cut anything that is going to directly impact their experience here,” said Loren Ferre, the Director of Athletics.

 As of now, there hasn’t been any budget cuts for individual teams because, according to Ferre, the budgets that are in place now are already stretched to the limits. The budget covers traveling, which includes meals, lodging and gas, equipment and recruiting, among other things.

 “We can’t stop traveling because that would give our teams fewer competitions which is affecting the student-athletes experience. And this would also put our teams in jeopardy of not making the playoffs,” said Ferre.

 Budget cuts are going to directly affect the administrative side of the athletic department. There are positions within the department where people have left their jobs and that position has been frozen. They are trying to find little things that will help with the budget cuts and trying to do things with better precision.

 Although fundraising has always been a means of taking in money, now there is a bigger emphasis placed on it. Kerry Dickerson, Assistant Athletic Director, is in charge of fundraising and is working even harder to get money. There are some sponsors that are dropping out, but there are others that are keeping the same amount and new companies starting to give money.

 “We need to try and find different ways to cover the costs of the different teams and administrative responsibilities. We are looking at ways to become more efficient,” said Ferre.