A $100,000 overestimation in student athletic fee revenue for the 1987 fiscal year will force the NIU athletic department to cut its current budget by $80,000.

Gary Glenn, chairman of the Athletic Board’s Budget Committee, said the board wanted to reduce the department’s deficit of more than $400,000 by about $95,000 this year. But he said Eddie Williams, vice president for budget and planning, overestimated the number of credit hours NIU students would have, leading to the $100,000 shortfall.

Glenn said the athletic department has profited $20,000 so far in the fiscal year, leaving $80,000 remaining from the overestimation, which Glenn said Williams has ordered cut from the athletic budget. Glenn said if no changes were implemented, the athletic department would not be able to reduce the deficit by the $95,000 originally targeted.

The 1987 fiscal year was the first of a two-year plan to reduce the department’s deficit to less than $50,000 by raising student athletic fees. The 1986-87 school year featured an $8 per semester increase in student athletic fees—the first increase since 1979.

“It was their (Finance and Planning’s) figures that came up short,” Glenn said. “We did our homework.”

Glenn pointed out, however, that estimating income from student fees is difficult.

Williams said, “Those estimates were not exactly what they were supposed to be. You make as best an estimate as you can. We’ve made the appropriate adjustments so that we can stay on target with our plan.”

Glenn said 60 percent of the athletic department’s budget goes toward the men’s sports, and 40 percent is given to women’s sports. He said that proportion also will apply to the $80,000 being cut. NIU men’s Athletic Director Robert Brigham will have to cut $48,000, while women’s Athletic Director Susie Pembroke-Jones will have to trim $32,000.

“As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time for this to happen,” Brigham said.

Brigham said the cuts might come from spring recruiting for football and basketball or spring football. Brigham said spring recruiting for non-revenue sports also might face reduction because the coaches of those sports leave money in their budget for such purposes.

Pembroke-Jones said money from grants-in-aid and recruiting for the field hockey team is available right now, but she said she does not know of other sources she can use.