With University of Northern Iowa strapped for cash and its tuition revenue sliding, unionized faculty members are criticizing the administration for giving nearly $4.3 million of the campus’ general university funds to athletics in the 2023 budget year — which was almost $1 million more than planned.
UNI in fiscal 2022 funneled $3.5 million to athletics, which was $148,616 more than budgeted — amounting to $7.8 million total over the two years, or $1.06 million more than expected.
And UNI’s United Faculty union is calling for an end to the practice of shifting general university funds to athletics — urging UNI Athletics to become self-supporting, like its counterparts at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.
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“What we'd like to see going forward is that the auxiliary units be self-sustaining,” United Faculty president and UNI digital journalism professor Christopher Martin told The Gazette. “That they don't dip back into the general university support.”
The reason, he said, is straightforward.
“On the academic side, we're really just cut to the bone,” Martin said. “We have so many faculty lines that we need to have filled and replaced.”
The millions UNI funnels to Panther Athletics annually “would really help us a lot,” Martin said about the university’s academic enterprise, which he called “the main mission of the university.”
“Almost every department is just kind of begging for more faculty,” he said, pointing to program closures — like the Textiles and Apparel major no longer accepting new students — as fallout of the faculty shortfall. “We're really just trying to do our best to keep up the academic excellence with fewer and fewer faculty.”
UNI Athletics is different from UI and ISU athletics in that it can’t sustain its budget alone and needs an annual boost from the general university fund to make ends meet — although UI Athletics during the pandemic borrowing $50 million from the main campus, which it hasn’t paid back.
Although UNI administrators agree that academics, student success, and faculty support are central to the campus’ mission, spokesman Pete Moris said athletics play an important role too.
“Supporting successful NCAA Division I athletic programs at UNI is integral in helping drive applications, admissions and financial giving to the institution,” Moris said. “The success of our student-athletes in the classroom and in competition elevates the national profile of our entire institution, helping energize our campus and our alumni base and our greater Cedar Valley community.”
He acknowledged UNI, “like many of our peer institutions,” has faced “difficult decisions across our entire campus over the last several years.” Among the moves its making in response is a $250 million “Our Tomorrow” fundraising campaign that to date has raised more than $243 million, including more than $169 million for scholarships, faculty support, engaged learning, and academic programs, Moris said.
That fundraising campaign also includes support for athletics facilities — like a new dome for the UNI Dome and a new wrestling facility. And United Faculty argue the general fund distributions to athletics — which have been routine for decades — need to stop.
“The loss of academic funding ultimately affects students at UNI,” United Faculty Vice President Fernando Calderon said. “It also raises a significant question about the budget priorities of this institution.”
Reporting UNI Athletics has among the lowest budgets among its conference peers, Moris said the UNI administration hears its faculty members and “continues to carefully weigh difficult decisions with the best interest of the entire university in mind as we continue in dialogue with the UNI community on this topic.”
“One of the ongoing directives for our athletics department is to generate more revenue and to identify additional opportunities for our athletics department to be more self-sustaining,” Moris said.
Martin said UNI administrators also need to do better about taking a shared governance approach in deciding to cover athletics shortfalls — especially when it amounts to $1 million.
“With a million dollars, we're talking at least 10 tenure-track faculty lines with salary and benefits,” President Martin said. “I mean, that's pretty substantial.”
And the faculty union didn’t know about the increase in athletics support until seeing it in the Board of Regents’ comprehensive fiscal report last month.
“We are completely astonished to discover this,” Martin said. “It’s a gut punch to our high goals and expectations for UNI academics.”
UNI, like UI and ISU, has seen its count of tenured and tenure-track faculty plummet over the last decade — with total faculty falling at UNI from 788 in the 2012-2013 academic year to 606 in 2022-23. UNI a decade ago had 453 tenured faculty and 112 tenure-track faculty, where last year it had 330 and 66, respectively, according to Board of Regents documents.
Pre-pandemic in the 2018 budget year, UNI spent $137 million on employee salaries. In fiscal 2023, six years later, UNI spent $123 million — representing a $14 million drop, or 10 percent decline. UNI had expected to spend $130 million last year on salaries but came in $7 million under budget “from attrition in all employee classifications and vacant positions.”
Meanwhile, United Faculty noted in its criticism, that UNI Athletics last year spent more than it budgeted in several sports and brought in less than expected from football, marketing, and miscellaneous moneymakers.
“This came at time when funding for faculty salaries and faculty lines continued to be reduced — by more than $2.087 million in FY 2023 from the previous year, making it the single largest line for defunding,” according to the faculty critique.
UNI in fiscal 2022 funneled $3.5 million to athletics, which was $148,616 more than budgeted — amounting to $7.8 million total over the two years, or $1.06 million more than expected.
And UNI’s United Faculty union is calling for an end to the practice of shifting general university funds to athletics — urging UNI Athletics to become self-supporting, like its counterparts at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University.
ADVERTISING
“What we'd like to see going forward is that the auxiliary units be self-sustaining,” United Faculty president and UNI digital journalism professor Christopher Martin told The Gazette. “That they don't dip back into the general university support.”
The reason, he said, is straightforward.
“On the academic side, we're really just cut to the bone,” Martin said. “We have so many faculty lines that we need to have filled and replaced.”
The millions UNI funnels to Panther Athletics annually “would really help us a lot,” Martin said about the university’s academic enterprise, which he called “the main mission of the university.”
“Almost every department is just kind of begging for more faculty,” he said, pointing to program closures — like the Textiles and Apparel major no longer accepting new students — as fallout of the faculty shortfall. “We're really just trying to do our best to keep up the academic excellence with fewer and fewer faculty.”
‘Difficult decisions’
UNI Athletics is different from UI and ISU athletics in that it can’t sustain its budget alone and needs an annual boost from the general university fund to make ends meet — although UI Athletics during the pandemic borrowing $50 million from the main campus, which it hasn’t paid back.
Although UNI administrators agree that academics, student success, and faculty support are central to the campus’ mission, spokesman Pete Moris said athletics play an important role too.
“Supporting successful NCAA Division I athletic programs at UNI is integral in helping drive applications, admissions and financial giving to the institution,” Moris said. “The success of our student-athletes in the classroom and in competition elevates the national profile of our entire institution, helping energize our campus and our alumni base and our greater Cedar Valley community.”
He acknowledged UNI, “like many of our peer institutions,” has faced “difficult decisions across our entire campus over the last several years.” Among the moves its making in response is a $250 million “Our Tomorrow” fundraising campaign that to date has raised more than $243 million, including more than $169 million for scholarships, faculty support, engaged learning, and academic programs, Moris said.
That fundraising campaign also includes support for athletics facilities — like a new dome for the UNI Dome and a new wrestling facility. And United Faculty argue the general fund distributions to athletics — which have been routine for decades — need to stop.
“The loss of academic funding ultimately affects students at UNI,” United Faculty Vice President Fernando Calderon said. “It also raises a significant question about the budget priorities of this institution.”
Reporting UNI Athletics has among the lowest budgets among its conference peers, Moris said the UNI administration hears its faculty members and “continues to carefully weigh difficult decisions with the best interest of the entire university in mind as we continue in dialogue with the UNI community on this topic.”
“One of the ongoing directives for our athletics department is to generate more revenue and to identify additional opportunities for our athletics department to be more self-sustaining,” Moris said.
‘10 tenure-track faculty lines’
Martin said UNI administrators also need to do better about taking a shared governance approach in deciding to cover athletics shortfalls — especially when it amounts to $1 million.
“With a million dollars, we're talking at least 10 tenure-track faculty lines with salary and benefits,” President Martin said. “I mean, that's pretty substantial.”
And the faculty union didn’t know about the increase in athletics support until seeing it in the Board of Regents’ comprehensive fiscal report last month.
“We are completely astonished to discover this,” Martin said. “It’s a gut punch to our high goals and expectations for UNI academics.”
UNI, like UI and ISU, has seen its count of tenured and tenure-track faculty plummet over the last decade — with total faculty falling at UNI from 788 in the 2012-2013 academic year to 606 in 2022-23. UNI a decade ago had 453 tenured faculty and 112 tenure-track faculty, where last year it had 330 and 66, respectively, according to Board of Regents documents.
Pre-pandemic in the 2018 budget year, UNI spent $137 million on employee salaries. In fiscal 2023, six years later, UNI spent $123 million — representing a $14 million drop, or 10 percent decline. UNI had expected to spend $130 million last year on salaries but came in $7 million under budget “from attrition in all employee classifications and vacant positions.”
Meanwhile, United Faculty noted in its criticism, that UNI Athletics last year spent more than it budgeted in several sports and brought in less than expected from football, marketing, and miscellaneous moneymakers.
“This came at time when funding for faculty salaries and faculty lines continued to be reduced — by more than $2.087 million in FY 2023 from the previous year, making it the single largest line for defunding,” according to the faculty critique.
Northern Iowa faculty seek end to general fund support for athletics
With University of Northern Iowa strapped for cash and its tuition revenue sliding, unionized faculty members are criticizing the administration for giving nearly $4.3 million of the campus’ general university funds to athletics in the 2023 budget year – which was almost $1 million more than...
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