The University of Northern Iowa’s faculty union has voiced concerns over how the school has been balancing its books.
Dr. Chris Martin of UNI’s United Faculty says that over the past two years, over $900,000 has been diverted from the school’s general operating fund to cover shortfalls in the athletics programs.
“We understand, at the end of the day, the administration has to have a balanced budget,” he said. “But we wanted to let them know that we didn’t want them to balance it this way.”
It’s a problem for Martin and his colleagues; since 2019, the university’s overall budget has declined by about $9 million.
That means fewer full-time faculty, which could mean fewer lasting, meaningful relationships with students and alumni.
“When you come back to your alma mater, you want to see the professors who taught you. You won’t be seeing adjuncts in many cases,” Martin argues. “You want to build continuity in departments, and the only way to do that is through full-time, tenure-track faculty.”
The number of those faculty has decreased by almost 100 in the past four years.
In a statement, UNI defended the movement of money, saying that one of its missions is “to generate more revenue and to identify additional opportunities for our athletics department to be more self-sustaining.”
The university also said that it maintains one of the lowest athletics budgets in the Missouri Valley Conference, with income and expenses both approaching about $15.5 million in the past fiscal year.
Martin points out that self-sustaining athletics programs are important, but they shouldn’t come at the expense of education, especially when those programs are already allowed to borrow from the school’s general fund.
“There was a deal way back in 2010 that UNI’s athletics programs could take money out of the general fund, but it couldn’t go past 2.4%,” he said.
The $900,000, Martin says, wasn't budgeted for.
UNI is in the middle of a multi-year $200 million fundraising campaign which includes campanile renovations and the naming of a business school. It has also received $1 million from Black Hawk County to help with UNI Dome renovations. The university is in the process of hiring a new athletic director, as well.
The Iowa Board of Regents has already approved both the dome renovation plans and the movement of the $900,000 to cover the shortfall.
