UH has to hit books, balance them

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Columnist

It is the beginning of the new fiscal year, and if that doesn't quite stir the imagination like the anticipation of the approaching football and volleyball seasons, its importance is not lost in Manoa and shouldn't be overlooked elsewhere, either.

After the first back-to-back years of an athletic department deficit in more than 20 years — a combined tsunami of red ink that could run toward $3 million or more — there is a sense of urgency that comes with balancing the books this year.

And, there needs to be. Not only for the athletic department's health and success, but for its sense of respect and the school's mission.

In these austere times, there is a limit to the aid the athletic department can expect from the upper campus and with its $1 million, interest-free, three-year bailout loan, this is it.

No word yet if somebody named Rocco will be around to enforce the re-payment.

A year ago, under a previous administration, the athletic department had to empty the so-called "rainy day" fund to pay off a $1.43 million deficit. That depleted the reserve, accumulated from years of previous surpluses, and took away the safety net that had been mandated by the Legislature.

Now, in the fiscal year that concluded yesterday, a new athletic administration, 11 months on the job, has had to go to Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert for a $1 million loan to cover the current deficit that could reach another $1.5 million.

At a time when the rest of the university and, indeed, the whole state is being squeezed by finances, it would be offensive for the athletic department to return tin cup in hand for more money next year. When the mission of the institution is supposed to be education, it would be wrong to further take away from it.

So, beginning today — which was also scheduled to be the first day of football coach June Jones' new contract — the athletic department is on its own. It is without much room for error for the first time in more than a quarter-century, dependent upon the success of its teams, its management and the goodwill of its fans as rarely before.

This, even at a projected $18 million, it isn't a Taj Mahal budget by Division I-A standards. It would still be less than half the average outlay of the top 20 schools in the Directors' Cup standings.

For UH, balancing the new budget is a significant and a sizeable challenge, the anticipation of which has not gone unnoted among its coaches.

Said one UH coach: "When I go on the road this year, I'm going to stock up on those hotel pens just in case we run out of money."

The coach was kidding — we think.