Senior Associate Athletic Director Cary Groth has designed a committee to define the use of $10,000 for an athletic training fund referred to as “nutritional supplements.”

At the December meeting of the Athletic Board yesterday, all of an NCAA broad-based pool budget of $210,486 was approved except for $10,000 allocated for “nutritional supplements.”

Members of the athletic board questioned the validity of a need for $10,000 for “nutritional supplements,”—which are not vitamins, said Mike Braid, head athletic trainer and member of the committee.

“Nutritional supplements are carbohydrates,” Braid said, “things looking to help improve the athletes’ diet.”

Thus, the board did not approve the money and Groth said after yesterday’s meeting that a committee is currently in the works to define exactly what “nutritional supplements” are and if the additives deserve that amount of money.

“A committee has been put together to help find a solution to the problem that athletes aren’t eating as well as they can eat,” Braid confirmed. “We want to give the appropriate diet to athletes so they can compete and we want to educate the athletes about proper nutrition.”

The budget passed last month included (among others): $40,000 for football recruiting; $3,000 for a field tarp and warmups for the softball team; $2,200 for outdoor sweats for the field hockey team; and $3,500 for rain suits for the men’s and women’s golf squads.

An extra $20,000 was allotted for the renovation of the women’s basketball and volleyball locker rooms and $1,000 for field hockey goals for the stadium.

NIU generated $210,486 from “NCAA broad-based pool” money. That figure ranked the 39th highest out of 282 institutions to receive similar funds.

Wednesday’s meeting focused primarily on the events that transpired at the recent NCAA Convention.