Letter: It's time to question the viability of athletics

Dear President Abdallah and the Board of Regents,

I support your efforts to deal with one of the worst economic crises our University has ever suffered. However, I am very concerned about the draconian cuts now occurring to core academic programs at a time when the Athletic Department is hemorrhaging millions of dollars, and consistently running deficits year after year that must be made up by legislative funds, student fees and cuts to other University programs. I believe that no public employee in a state like New Mexico should earn multi-million dollar salaries and contract buyouts.

I am very familiar with the arguments that football and basketball bring in ticket revenues, support other sports and enhance the prestige of the University. If that is the case, why have ticket sales dropped and why has the department been allowed to run deficits for seven of the past nine years, including this year’s overspending of more than $1.5 million?

The argument I have heard from previous administrations is that it is necessary to pay ever higher salaries and contract guarantees to get the best coaches who will bring in more ticket revenues and donations. If the business model is dependent on running huge deficits and rewarding failure, it is not sustainable and needs to be changed.

How do you explain to a UNM employee trying to raise a family on $9.50 an hour, that there is no money for a raise; to an academic department that they must lay off faculty members and eliminate classes while the basketball program is paying multi-million dollar salaries; or to a student who is carrying 18 credit hours to graduate while working two part-time jobs that fees have to be raised again to help pay off the past deficits.

We need to ask honestly if our state, our University and our students need and can afford tens of millions of dollars a year to maintain failing Division 1 basketball and football programs.

I would urge you to take the following steps to address this problem:

1. Publicly release details of the cumulative athletic deficits, explain why they were allowed to run deficits at all, and why they have failed to pay them back in the past.

2. Explain how they plan to pay them back at a time of declining ticket sales, cuts in state funding, giant payouts to failed coaches and negotiations on future multi-million dollar contracts.

3. Work with the Board of Regents to define the priority of spending on basketball and football in light of cuts to core academic, research and service programs.

4. Work with the faculty, staff and students to develop a cost-effective and reasonable business model at the appropriate level for UNM athletic programs.

5. Put a hold on hiring any new coaches until all the steps above have been accomplished.Our University has never faced a greater threat, and in order to save it, all options need to be on the table. There is no excuse for continuing failed policies and pouring good money into bad programs. That is a recipe for disaster.

Ken Carpenter
Adjunct instructor, International Studies, Peace & Justice Studies