Who should have more influence with athletics, students or alumni?

[87ashtonhoosier 150]

I disagree with the premise that athletics are largely funded by alumni. According to IU's 2014 financial reports, 35% of their revenue comes from student fees and 3.5% comes from gifts.

http://vpcfo.iu.edu/doc/fy2014.pdf

If you read the report carefully, you are correct that 35% of current revenue comes from fees, however, before adding outside sources of revenue, IU is in the hole for $643,000,000! Other revenue sources are the saving factor.

[87ashtonhoosier 150]

IUs Athletic Department is essentially self-sustaining. I know as recently as 2012 they received a 3% subsidy from the University to supplement the $66 million in revenue they produced themselves. But by and large, student fees account for little of the operating budget.

Right. Varsity Club's function is to fund scholarships for student- athletes, thus supplementing athletics revenue.
Do you think Varsity Club has influence with Fred Glass?

[johnsoniu 6,415]

Yes, both directly and indirectly.

 

Keeping in mind, though, that Glass is the CEO of the Varsity Club. Is it time for a coup? lol

[moyemayhem 1,287]

If you read the report carefully, you are correct that 35% of current revenue comes from fees, however, before adding outside sources of revenue, IU is in the hole for $643,000,000! Other revenue sources are the saving factor.

 

The question is, does that make the supplemental money any more valuable than what is actually received from the students.  I don't really have a dog in the fight, I was just pointing out that I think it's not exactly accurate to say the alumni primarily fund the department.  There are many significant financial stakeholders (including the unmentioned state government), and I think it would be silly to rank their importance.  However, if you had to rank them I would look at the total financial contribution to the university, and personally I don't see earmarked money as any more valuable than the money from any other source.