The sky is not yet falling for the NIU athletic department.

At last Wednesday’s Faculty Senate meeting, Eddie Williams, vice president of Finance and Planning, announced NIU President John La Tourette’s five-year plan to completely phase out the athletic department’s share of state-appropriated funds.

However, NIU Athletic Director Gerald O’Dell said his department will be able to withstand the loss of funds. “I don’t subscribe to the Chicken Little theory,” O’Dell said. In other words, the sky will not be falling anytime soon.

O’Dell said Williams and La Tourette discussed the plan with him before it was announced. “The charge was,‘can we accelerate the reduction in appropriated funds for athletics?'” O’Dell said. “Yes, we can.”

La Tourette’s plan calls for a $500,000 decrease in the department’s state-appropriated funds for FY 1994 and a $300,000 decrease in FY 1995.

State-appropriated funds make up $2.3 million of the athletic department’s $6.5 million budget.

Through the new plan, the athletic program will depend entirely on non-appropriated funds from gate receipts, gifts from donors, guarantees paid by opponents and student fees.

Significant increases in fundraising will be enough to offset the loss of appropriated funds, O’Dell said.

“When I became athletic director in 1988, only 11.8 percent of our total budget came from external funds (gate receipts, television and program sales),” O’Dell said. “This year the percentage will be a minimum of 30 percent.”

Due to a decrease in enrollment, the athletic department also faces a decrease in student fees, he said.

Student fees make up $2.15 million of the athletic budget, with each student paying a $4.48 athletic fee per credit hour, O’Dell said.

However, O’Dell said he is confident the athletic department will not be hampered by the new plan.

Because of uncertain economic times, the athletic department is now developing a contingency plan to fall back on if fundraising efforts trail off, he said.

“If (NIU) falls short in a given year generating revenue, then we’ll develop a contingency fund within our budget,” he said.

One potential problem could be the affect of the plan on non-revenue generating sports. O’Dell said he does not foresee a problem in that area.

“Those programs are funded in many ways better than some of the revenue-generating sports,” O’Dell said.