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ad to fees, which accounts for 47 percent of the total athletic department budget. "Intercollegiate athletics is funded at a level greater than most academic de­ partments. Academic departments were cut last year, but athletics still requests its increase, year after year. I think that we are just asking them to take their cut, just like everyone else," said IFC Chair Jennie L. Clark in the Feb. 12 Van­ guard. "I happen to think intercollegiate athletics is part of the educational process. I would be the first to say that I don't think money should be taken from aca­ demic programs to fund athletics. But that is not the issue. The issue is, should athletics be supported (by the state) or shouldn't they?" responded Roy Love, assistant to the president for athletics, in the same Vanguard issue. Amidst this debate, a coalition of seven students proposed a recall of four committee members because of their stance on the issue. Clark, and members Dan Shea, Laurie Huntwork, and Michelle Fisher were named on the petition, which was submitted to the ASPSU office on Feb. 18. The coalition gathered enough signatures to force a special election Mar. 13. However, the Evalua­ tion and Constitution Review Committee declared the election invalid due to lack of appropriate announcement of the event and because the Elections Committee gave absentee ballots to the baseball team. On Mar. 31, PSU President Judith A. Ramaley announced she would not accept the IFC's proposed five percent cut to athletics, and asked that the IFC instead cut Smith Memorial Center by $15,000 and other programs by $17,000. Assistant Director to Auxilliary Services James D. Sells responded in the budget appeal session that such a cut to SMC would force it to stay open fewer hours, and not at all on the weekends. A few days later. Sells rescinded that statement, and stressed a need for the IFC and Ramaley to reach a com­ promise. The compromise was never reached. From April until the end of May, the IFC and the university president shot budget recommendations back and forth, neither side backing down. On May 22, Clark predicted that the IFC would seek arbitration on the matter. "It will be a very short discussion... I don't think it will take us very long to decide to go to adjudication," she said in that day's Vanguard. However, IFC member Tina Baldomaro was not present at the meeting on May 27, and the committee was deadlocked at 3-3 in the vote for adjudication. Proponents of the process stressed the need for a fair process, while dis­ senters felt that the process was skewed to­ wards the administration. "I was a bit surprised at some people's (IFC members) giving in. They were giving in out of resignation, because they were so tired of coming to the table," Shea said. On June 24, Ramaley submitted her budget recommendation to the Chancellor's Office, standing firm on a two percent cut. "The thing that bothers me the most about it is that we really weren't asking for very much. You're looking at 20 percent cuts from Mea­ sure 5, and we were only asking for a five per­ cent cut... I think we're all going to be hurt by it in the long run," Shea said. —Greg Smiley Dan Martin Tina Baldamaro Dan Martin Dan Shea •i 91

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