UC Berkeley urged to slash athletics subsidy

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:

At UC Berkeley, where academic departments are not allowed to run deficits, cost-cutting looks like this: 63 chronic roof leaks around campus, once-a-month garbage collection, some staff paychecks hovering near the poverty line and faculty phone lines yanked.

Berkeley's athletic department has no such deficit prohibition. Even as its $70 million budget soared by 61 percent during the recession, it still managed to spend more than it had. Campus administrators helped out by handing the department $13.7 million last year. Such subsidies average $11 million per year, says a panel of eight faculty members and alumni donors whose report, released Monday, minced no words in describing the contrasting fortunes of Berkeley's athletic and academic sides.

The report found that the university's athletic subsidies are among the highest in the nation. At Berkeley, that's money that might have been used to upgrade antiquated labs and save lecturers' jobs.

Great moments in public education.