If the controversial student fee increase to fund athletics is approved, by the 1997-1998 academic year, students will be paying about 89 percent more for athletics as well as a huge majority of the athletic budget.

The proposal aims at complying with pressure to remove state-appropriated tax dollars from the intercollegiate athletics budget. State funding currently makes up approximately 45 percent of the total athletic budget. A student fee hike would bear the brunt of the budget shortfall created by the elimination of all state funds.

As it stands, the athletic department only comes up with about 15 percent of its budget from ticket sales and other income, according to its published 1992-93 budget. The department will need to acquire about $1 million if the proposed amount of state-appropriated money is eliminated, which is slightly less than half of the current state-appropriated funding for athletics.

The President’s Fee Study Committee is expected to determine whether to submit the proposal to NIU President John La Tourette on Thursday. With La Tourette’s approval, the measure then would go to the Board of Regents.

The removal of general revenue funds from the intercollegiate athletics budget is related to current pressure from state government officials and the Illinois Board of Higher Education to reduce the dependence of universities on state tax dollars.

State tax revenues have not grown significantly in the last three years. NIU reacted to this financial pressure by creating the Organization, Productivity and Salaries (OPS) committee, which looked at reallocating resources for a faculty pay increase. Part of athletics’ general revenue funds is being reallocated for the pay increase.

Intercollegiate athletics lost further appropriated funds as a result of La Tourette’s five-year plan that will reallocate more than $1 million of the funds to academics.

Intercollegiate athletics is asking for a five-year phase-in of a $4.01 additional charge per credit hour to deal with the loss of appropriated funds.

If the fee increase is approved, in the 1997-1998 academic year, students taking 12 credit hours or more will be paying $101.88 in student fees for athletics alone.

This year, NIU students paid $4.48 per credit hour, up to the 12-hour mark for intercollegiate athletics. That translates to a fee of $53.76 for a student taking at least 12 credit hours.

Each year of the five-year phase-in, an amount of general revenue equal to the new funds generated by the fee increase will be removed from the intercollegiate athletics budget and reallocated toward academics.

In a Sept. 2, 1992 memo, La Tourette called for an acceleration of the removal of general revenue funds from athletics to be reallocated to academic instruction.

In the memo, La Tourette said, “There is no need to devastate, self-construe or shortchange our students.”

About $250,000 was removed this year, $500,000 will be removed next year, $300,000 will be removed before the 1994-1995 academic year and the remaining $34,075 of general revenue will be removed before the 1997-1998 academic year.

In other words, by the time the student fee increase is completely implemented, $1,084,075 in general revenue will have been removed from the intercollegiate athletics budget.

According to the fee recommendation, the amount pulled out of general revenue will be equal to the amount of money brought in by student fees.

The student fee increase will have to cover this $1,084,075 loss of funds.