Aaron Vehling

If UW-Eau Claire Health Services, with its $36,000 deficit, needs a Band-Aid to fix its financial difficulties, then the athletics department may need an appointment with a good surgeon.

At the end of the 2003 fiscal year, the athletics department posted a deficit of $219,575.90, according to university budgets.

Andy Soll, vice chancellor of business and student services; Steve Tallant, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs; and Dave Gessner, business services director, met with The Spectator Friday to discuss the future of the athletics department.

“It’s a complicated issue,” Tallant said. “We don’t have all the answers right now.”

The three administrators refused to speculate on specific reasons for the growing deficit, saying they are still examining the problems.

“We’re still diagnosing,” Tallant said. “There’s no simple solutions to problems in complex (situations).”

Soll said the first goal for this fiscal year is to assure a balanced athletics budget. Once accomplished, the department will begin paying its accumulated deficit.

Other fixes coming from outside of the athletics department could include reallocating funds within the $2 million allocated for organized activities, a segregated fees adjustment or the Student Senate Finance Commission asking athletics or other departments to scale back its activities, Soll said.

The trio said fluctuation between deficits and surpluses within the athletics department is typical, moving up and down about every three years.

The current buildup of the deficit has been growing for about five years, Soll said. The last fiscal year saw the largest plunge of about $120,000.

Gessner said the deficit likely came from underestimated costs within the department. To reach the “right consensus” on a solution will require a multi-faceted approach, he said, adding that the athletics department is far more complex than other organizations on campus.

Ticket revenues, fund raising, playoffs, maintenance, personnel, team travel to games, weather, concessions sales and other issues combine to form an issue so complex it becomes clear only “after the dust settles,” Gessner said.

“It’s something we’re taking very seriously,” Soll said. “We’re not panicking.”

He also stressed that “at this point, it does not appear this is a program running wild.”

All three repeatedly said students would be closely involved with the department’s solutions.

“It is not our intention to solve this without students,” Gessner said. “The students will be a key player in this.”

The students who will particularly be involved with the athletics department were elected as a subcommittee from Senate Finance Commission. Seniors Kara Kangas and Steve Pigeon earned the roles Wednesday night, said Chad Wade, the head of the Senate Finance Commission.

Multiple phone calls to Tim Petermann, interim athletic director, were unreturned.