When someone promises me something, I tend to believe them. But the next time GSB makes a promise, I’m going to have to ask them to make the ultimate vow: I cross my heart and hope to die and stick a needle in my eye. Even then I’m not sure if I will believe them.

Usually the matters of our student government don’t concern me all that much, but lately one of their cuts came too close to my own hairline for me not to notice.

As some of you may remember, a while back Iowa State had five non-revenue sports in financial trouble. Student athletes rallied to “keep the five alive.” GSB swooped in and saved the day, as well as the sanity of hundreds of student athletes by promising to help support the athletic program with a two-year plan that would use $10 (per student) of student fees. This plan would give the program $520,000, students would pay $5 extra a semester.

Then last spring, the “promise” changed. GSB decided to cut their support in half, to $2.50 per student. Not to be outdone, this year’s GSB chopped it again, this time to $. 75 per student. The bottom line is a $91,000 loss for the athletic department.

Some of you might be wondering, “Why is she throwing all these dumb numbers at us? Joanne has never been good with math!”

I take a personal interest in this issue. As a runner on the Iowa State track and field team, my non-revenue teammates and I are curious about how that $91,000 is going to be eliminated from the budget. But a better question is “why?”

Kevin Ragland, Graduate Student Senate president, said that athletics was obviously not in need of financial support from the students. He cited the construction of a new press box at Trice stadium and the planned artificial turf practice field as evidence that Cyclone sports were definitely not feeling the pinch at the purse strings.

I’ve got one word for you, Kevin: donations. How do you think they came up with those crazy house names for the residence hall floors? Money is the name of the game. Call them “friends” of the university, call them generous alumni … heck, you can call them anything you want as long as you call them when it’s time to do fund-raising for a new building or project on campus.

If the athletic department was pouring its money into a new press box, they would barely have enough change left over to buy me a pair of track spikes. Whew! I’m sure glad somebody checked that hard core evidence out before our governmental body voted to eliminate $91,000 from one of the biggest recruiting tools on campus.

What you talkin’ about Willis?

It’s true. While athletics are not (and should not) be the main focus of our university, they do play a big role in recruiting. Academics are important, but unfortunately the Cyclones don’t get too many front page stories about how many people made it on the dean’s list. Yet, how many times in the last couple years has Troy Davis’ mug been on the front of the sports section? How much ink has our basketball team been getting? That’s free publicity, and there’s nothing that can compare to it.

For example, I was in Florida for a track meet a couple of weeks ago, and some high school kid from Jacksonville said to me, “Oh, you’re from Iowa State? Do you know Chris Bono?” Athletics give us the national attention that we need to get ISU’s name out to students who may not have heard or cared about our university before. Without proper funding, the quality and success of our sports teams will dwindle. When that decreases, so do our recruitment possibilities.

Recruitment isn’t the only thing that suffers. A portion of the athletic program’s funding goes to the Student Athlete Advisory Board (SAAB). SAAB is the voice of the student-athletes and have a representative from each team.

The group’s major project this year has been a program called COED-TEAM. With this program, ISU’s athletes go into elementary schools, middle schools and high schools in the Ames area and perform skits and facilitate discussions on making good decisions. Through SAAB, a community service clean up day is planned for May for residents of Ames. Later this month, student-athletes will be playing in a basketball game with the Minnesota Vikings in a project for the Boys and Girls Club of Ames.

I’m sure GSB knew about all of these things, as they were knowledgeable enough to vote on whether the athletic department really needed the $91,000 that they sliced from the budget.

Perhaps next time a major vote is going down, GSB will at least give the group the courtesy of finding out true facts, rather than slanted “evidence” that was used in this case. Or maybe we should just threaten them with the needle.

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Joanne Roepke is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Aurora.