In a meeting with UC Santa Cruz's NCAA coaches this week, Executive Vice Chancellor Alison Galloway outlined her plans to provide a temporary budget augmentation to the Athletics Department to better support the teams, the players, and the coaches who guide them.
The budget augmentation, which is estimated to cost the campus approximately $800,000 annually, will begin this spring quarter and continue through at least the 2014-15 year. The augmentation will be added to the approximately $225,000 in central campus funds that already support the campus's 14 teams.
In the meeting with the coaches, held on Tuesday, Galloway committed to providing the temporary budget support in an effort to immediately address the coaches' concerns about compensation and other issues. But she stressed that the department and other supporters of NCAA sports at UCSC will have to qualify a fee measure for next spring's student elections — and secure passage of that measure — as a long-term funding solution.
If students do not pass an athletics measure in spring 2015, the campus would continue the $800,000 budget augmentation through the 2016-17 year — but also begin considering how best to phase out its NCAA program.
"Even if the students don't support such a measure, we believe we owe it to current and prospective student-athletes to know that the teams will exist — at this new, higher level of support — for at least for another three years," Galloway said.
"Hopefully, these teams will be seen as absolutely worthy of the investment by other students, who will vote to support them," she said. "If that doesn't happen, we need to take an honest look at our participation in NCAA sports."
Among the "campus" fees that UCSC students currently pay is a $15-per-year assessment to support intercollegiate athletics. While fees of this nature are assessed at many other UC campuses, UCSC's assessment appears to be among the lowest in the system. At UC Merced, for example, students pay $150 in fees annually to support athletics.
"At a time when we are needing to refill faculty positions eliminated during the worst years of the budget crisis, I concluded that the campus budget could not, over the long term, make up the difference," Galloway said. "But I want to give the Athletics Department, the coaches, and the teams themselves the opportunity to ask students to increase that particular campus fee to just a reasonable level."
Many details remain to be worked out, but the temporary budget augmentation Galloway announced at the meeting has the following elements:
- Effective this spring quarter, UCSC will revise the way in which coaches and assistant coaches are compensated. While the precise salary changes have not been determined, Galloway committed to raising the coaches' pay and changing the terms of their employment to make them eligible for health and other benefits.
- The Athletics Department will also use part of the augmentation to hire two additional athletic trainers, increasing to four the number of trainers available to the teams and their players. The new trainers, who will be hired through recruitments, will be brought on board as quickly as possible.
- Effective this spring, the Athletics Department's travel budget will be increased, enabling teams to travel to and from "away" games as safely as possible. This augmentation will enable teams to stay in overnight accommodations if the game schedule requires that. The travel augmentation will also cover the costs of bus transportation and meals.
Andrea Willer, director of UCSC's Office of Physical Education, Recreation, and Sports, said she appreciates the new short-term funding commitment from the campus and welcomes the challenge that the Athletics Department will now have to secure long-term student support for the campus's NCAA teams.
"This approach helps us immediately address the concerns of our coaches," she added. "With a relatively modest investment from students, we can create a sustainable level of support for UCSC athletics."
