We recently wrote about the Board of Regents’ request that President Geoffroy investigate ways of cutting state funding to the ISU athletic department — and we expressed our hope to delve deeper into the financial relationship between the department in the University.

Well, last week, members of the Editorial Board met with Athletic Director Jamie Pollard to ask him about the department’s  financial future and the plans he and President Geoffroy are working on to make up for the loss of $1.6 million in state funds currently provided to the department.

We were concerned this money would be recouped by a student fee hike. Currently, each of us pays an athletics fee of $22.50 per semester — in total, $1.6 million of the department’s $42.3 million 2010 budget.

Pollard wanted to make it known that the athletic department has not increased student fees since he was hired in 2005. We were also pleased to hear that he and his Director of Athletics Advisory Committee — made up of student representatives — have come to the decision to not propose raising these fees in the foreseeable future.

Pollard’s initiative in creating this advisory committee and his willingness to work with students showed us that he is committed to not only providing the best product on the field, but he is also committed to funding the department in a way that does not increase financial burden on students.

Let’s just say we’re fans of that idea.

Pollard made it clear he would only seek student fee money if the benefits would be available to everyone, such as with a mutually-useable facility like the Lied Rec. In his meeting with the advisory committee last fall, Pollard said for the first time during his tenure at Iowa State he might be interested in a fee increase, if a donor for a new facility could be found. Right now, that’s a big if.

We also asked about the athletic department’s association with the university, and whether the loss of state funds would impact its adherence to Title IX, a federal regulation requiring all universities that receive any amount of federal funding to have a similar — although not necessarily equal — amount of funding and support for women’s and men’s athletics.

Much of the money the athletic department currently receives from the state goes toward paying scholarships for Iowa State’s female athletes. Pollard surprised us, though, when he said the athletic department actually spends more on women’s athletics than it needs to in order to comply with Title IX regulations.

The topic that most impressed us, though, was the department’s budget — where its $42.3 million actually comes from.

More than $23 million comes from ticket sales and donations to the program, while slightly more than $14 million comes from the affiliation with the Big 12 Conference and the rest of the department’s sponsors. But, now that the $1.6 million from the state is being whittled away, what keeps the athletics department tied to the university, and, therefore, tied to the state?

Pollard said while some athletic departments around the nation are corporate entities, organizationally separate from their universities — most notably, the athletic departments at the Universities of Kansas and Florida — such a switch is not in Iowa State’s forseeable future.

And, as we came away from our near-hour long discussion with Mr. Pollard, we couldn’t help but feel reassured that the department was in good hands going forward — wherever the funding comes from.