Student leaders and Athletic Department officials opened lines of communication Thursday after the Government of the Student Body passed legislation to discourage the department from cutting non-revenue athletic programs.

Members of the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams, concerned pending $40 million state budget cuts may jeopardize the future of their programs, asked GSB for help Wednesday night.

The senate responded with a unanimous vote on a resolution that states, “In the event that the Athletic Department choose to cut any or all non-revenue generating sports, the students of ISU will seek a proportional decrease in the amount of student activity fees directed to the ISU Athletic Department.”

Four GSB representatives, including President Ben Golding, Vice President Lisa Dlouhy, Finance Director Steve Medanic and Student Fees Senator Alex Olson – sit on the university’s student fees committee.

Each year, about $1 million in student fees is allocated to the Athletic Department to support non-revenue generating Olympic sports – such as the swim teams – and to decrease ticket prices, Golding said.

However, after meeting twice Thursday with ISU Athletic Director Bruce Van de Velde, Golding said the senate may have acted prematurely.

“We didn’t have all the information when we made our decision last night,” Golding said. “We thought with our hearts, not with our heads, and we need both processes.”

Van de Velde said Wednesday no decisions have been made about which programs – if any – will be cut. However, the multi-million dollar budget reduction recommended by Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack Wednesday would put a crunch on all university departments, he said.

Golding said GSB needs to make sure the best interests of the students remain at the forefront of the budget discussions.

“It’s not all lost in dollars and cents,” he said. “The students are still the first concern. [The Athletic Department] just wants to look at the whole picture.”

According to the Athletic Department Web site, men’s basketball and football brought in more than $11.7 million during the 1999-2000 season, accounting for 52 percent of the department’s revenue. The teams’ expenses, which come to about $7 million, account for 36.9 percent of the overall department expenses.

In contrast, the seven other men’s teams – basketball, golf, swimming and diving, wrestling, cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field – brought in a combined $261,556, just 1.2 percent of the total revenue.

The combined expenses of the seven teams added up to $1,708,131, about 9.1 percent of the expense total.

Operating expenses for the men’s swim team, whose members fear their team may be first on the chopping block, cost the Athletic Department $24,469 last year, the smallest operating budget of any men’s or women’s varsity team.

Jeff Gahan, member of the men’s swim team, said the team appreciates GSB’s support.

“We are really appreciative of GSB,” said Gahan, senior in chemical engineering. “They’ve demonstrated their support time and again.”

Dlouhy said the student leaders appreciate the input from the swim teams.

“I think it says a lot about how they feel about their program,” she said.

Golding said the student leaders will be a lot more effective working with the Athletic Department.

“We want to work with the Athletic Department as opposed to working against them,” he said. “We’ve realized the importance of going through this process supportively.”