Budget cuts affect all areas of the university — including Recreation Services. This department provides the facilities students and faculty use to train, practice and play. Recreation Services also administers intramural sports.

Scott White, associate director of recreation services in charge of business operations and planning, said the department was facing a cut of about $250,000 in its budget earlier this year, but that number has significantly decreased since then.

As of right now, White said, Recreation Services is looking at a cut of about 2 percent, or $12,000-13,000, from the state side of its budget. There is also a possibility, if things work out, that the department will end up with a flat budget — no gain or loss.

“It would take an aligning of the stars and planets to have that happen,” White said.

Recreation Services does not receive money from just the university. Its budget is made up of money from the state, which goes to pay staff salaries, and generated revenue. The majority comes from the activity fees students pay every semester.

To help offset these cuts, those activity fees will likely be increased by $1.40.

“We are told that the student fee committee has approved the $1.40 increase,” White said.

“Ultimately though, the decision rests with the Board of Regents. They can approve it and either raise or lower the amount.”

The Board of Regents will meet in May to vote on the increase, which would take effect in fiscal year 2005.

Considering the number of students who pay activity fees, an estimated $73,000 would be brought in by the fee increase if enrollment stays the way it is now. A surge in enrollment would be the icing on the cake, White said. That extra money would probably help to cover the shortfall staff salaries will be facing.

When these cuts hit, Recreation Services will be forced to cut back on the services it provides, such as intramural sports, White said. As of now, no sport is on the chopping block, but that could change in the next month or two. In that event, some of the sports with less participation could become candidates for cuts, White said.

But, in order to save any significant amount of money, a number of sports would have to go, White said. Cutting one of the more popular sports, such as flag football or broomball, would save the department a huge amount of money, but White said he is interested in avoiding that because those sports are so popular.

One item students don’t have to worry about being cut is the T-shirts, which have been around since 1978.

“These T-shirts are so much a part of the culture anymore, you can’t just get rid of them,” White said.

“People will be upset if you do that. Besides, they create a friendly air of competition among students and they enjoy playing for them.”

More likely, cuts will come in the form of cutting back on the hours the recreation facilities are open, White said.

Another possibility would be decreasing the number of preliminary games intramural teams play before elimination rounds.

A third option would see the department limit the number of entries for teams and players for each sport. For example, instead of having 300 teams for broomball, there will only be 200, White said.

“I hope they would exhaust every other possibility before they begin taking things away from the students like intramural sports,” said Ryan King, junior in computer engineering.

King, who is president of Larch Hall, added that he would ask student governing bodies such as the Inter-Residence Hall Association to officially state the students’ displeasure if some sports were cut.

This is not the first time Recreation Services has faced a large decrease in its budget. In the spring of 1991, the department was facing a large, unexpected budget cut for fiscal year 1992. For those cuts, Recreation Services did the same things officials are talking about now, White said.

He said preliminary games were cut, the number of officials was reduced and building hours were shortened. In addition, outdoor recreation trips were reduced by about half.