The Syracuse Athletic Department — not the university — should bear the $7.5 million exit fee of leaving the Big East conference, said members of the university’s budget committee.

Syracuse leaves the Big East conference to join the Atlantic Coast Conference this summer. The Syracuse University Board of Trustees unanimously approved the entire university shouldering the cost of the move during its January meeting.

How the university should cover SU’s move to the ACC was included in the annual report from the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee, and caused the most discussion during Wednesday’s University Senate meeting at 4 p.m. in Maxwell Auditorium. It was the final meeting for the 2013-14 academic year.

The athletics program will make money from its annual conference payout, which comes from conference television contracts, the committee argued.

At a time when SU is financially challenged, “asking the entire university to bear the cost of the exit fee so that coaches’ salaries and facilities for athletics may be improved does not align with the core academic mission of the University,” according to the committee’s report.

At Wednesday’s meeting, several senators spoke up to disagree with the decision of the board. Senators supported the committee’s recommendation and approved a resolution for the Senate to back the athletic department covering the cost.

Committee chair Craig Dudczak presented the report and said the decision to disagree with the board was not made lightly.

“It may be that our recommendation to the trustees just becomes that: a recommendation. But it is important for us to honestly voice our differences,” Dudczak said.

Robert van Gulick, a member of the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee, introduced a resolution for the entire Senate to recommend the university not directly or indirectly subsidize the cost of conference transition.

“We’re told that this decision has been made and we think it’s the wrong decision,” Van Gulick said.

He said this is a matter the athletic department should handle, especially since the it will be the one benefiting from the move. The athletic department will receive a regular payout from the ACC that is far larger than it has been receiving from the Big East, he said.

Van Gulick also noted that SU schools and colleges already indirectly subsidize the athletic department by paying the full cost of athletic scholarships, a cost of approximately $16 million per year.

Other senators, such as history professor David Bennett, said the exit fee will be a burden the athletics department should share.

“Intercollegiate athletics should not be a burden on the academic budget,” Bennett said.

The board believes the entire university will benefit from the move to the ACC, said Dick Thompson, chairman of the board, in a statement Wednesday following the Senate meeting.

“In just a few years, the annual increases in new ACC revenue that will be returned to the University’s academic and auxiliary centers via budget redistribution will exceed the total cost of the exit fee,” Thompson said.

At the Senate meeting, Lou Marcoccia, chief financial officer at SU, noted there would be benefits to the entire university joining the ACC. Such benefits include joining the ranks of national research institutions to attract new staff, faculty and students.

“There are an awful lot of reasons why this is an all-university matter and why it should be handled that way,” Marcoccia said.

In addition to the presentation on the athletic department, the committee also made recommendations on enrollment management, the library and reassessing the growth of the administration:

Enrollment management

For graduate students, the discount rate — or institutional grant aid awarded to students as a percentage of an institution’s gross tuition — varies widely, according to the report. The majority of doctoral students receive discount rates of 80 percent or more.

International students comprise 15 percent of SU’s total student population, with about two-thirds of international students coming from India or China.

The report looked into how the number of international students could change and concerns the university might have looking forward. The committee pointed out that a high concentration of international students from a few countries might make students subject to political or economic disruptions. Additionally, as places like China and India continue to develop their higher education opportunities, international students from these countries could decrease.

The committee also made two specific recommendations for undergraduate aid. First, the committee recommended the university annually evaluate the financial aid a student receives. The committee suggested this could help direct aid to those students with the greatest need.

The committee then recommended that the next major fundraising campaign give priority to financial aid.

University library

 

The library has been continually underfunded, especially when it comes to the library meeting new technology needs, according to the committee’s report. An external review committee recommended a baseline need of $7 million to assist in meeting the library’s needs.

The committee recommended the library find a long-term plan to bring it up to standards.

Administration

The committee questioned whether the growth of administrative offices is warranted.

SU is currently using a Responsibility Center Management Model. An RCM is a management concept that decentralizes decisions and financial authority with the goal of improving institutional performance.

The committee recommended that the trustees hire an external consultant to evaluate central administration and responsibility centers. This consultant would examine reducing the size of senior administrative offices and determine whether SU’s current administrative model is meeting its goals.

Published on April 18, 2013 at 1:00 am

Contact Dara: dkmcbrid@syr.edu | @daramcbride