Campus Recreation will have a decreased budget over three years as a step to reduce spending by 7 percent.
The annual Division of Student Affairs report shows a 0.7 percent decrease in budget allocation for Campus Recreation in 2018 from 2017, according to Ohio University Budget Director Katie Hensel.
“The (2017) expense budget for Campus Recreation was $6,337,985, and for (2018) the expense budget is $6,293,297, a slight decrease,” Hensel said in an email.
Executive Director of Campus Recreation Mark Ferguson said overall services will be maintained, however, changes in Campus Recreation will be seen in the way students are managed. That would mean cutting costs on staff for officiating levels of some intramural sports.
“Several adjustments were made to the way we staff various programs and facilities to reduce our expenses as the primary driver to meeting our budget,” Ferguson said in an email.
Hensel said the process for budget reduction began in 2017 and will continue through the remainder of 2018 and into 2019 as Campus Recreation is committed to achieve the 7 percent budget reduction by 2019.
“Administrative units continue to implement cuts and reallocations to reduce actual spending by 7 percent over three years while striving to continue to provide academic support services for students, faculty, staff, information technology and compliance needs,” Hensel said in an email.
Katie Gerber, who goes to the gym three times a week, said she is not bothered by the reduced budget as it is a minor decrease.
“Since it is so minor, it is probably not that big of a deal,” Gerber, a sophomore studying exercise and physiology, said.
Gerber thinks the money saved from a decrease in the budget is being used to pay the staff more.
OU provided a 1.5 percent raise pool in 2018, according to Hensel.
Gerber wants the campus recreation budget to remain constant and, if possible, to increase its funding a little bit because students should get the best facilities.
“They can keep it constant until if they are having problems with money,” she said. “Maybe try to increase it, but definitely not to decrease because if they keep decreasing it every year eventually everything’s going to get worse and it won’t be as good.”
The recreation quality and budget should be closely monitored, Gerber said.
“I don’t think students would like to go to or participate in recreation events if it wasn’t as good as it could be,” she said.
