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<p>OK, how about UNC-Chapel Hill, Florida, and Ohio State? The Ohio State Athletic Department recently gave $9 million to the University to fund long-overdue renovations on Thompson Library, the main campus library. In addition, since 1990 the Athletic Department has transferred $500,000 annually to fund library operating costs; gives annual grants to the student-run radio station; and contributes $100,000 annually to the School of Music, over and above the Marching Band’s $200,000 annual budget which is also paid entirely out of Athletic Department funds.</p>
<p>And that doesn’t even count tuition payments for student-athletes on athletic scholarships, which also represent revenue to the University’s general fund coming out of the Athletic Department budget. Look at it this way. If a University were to shut down its Athletic Department tomorrow, most of those scholarship athletes wouldn’t stick around to pay for their education out of their own pocket. The University, then, would need to make up the lost tuition revenue by finding an equivalent number of new full pay students; or recruit an even larger number of new students coming in at a discounted rate under need-based or merit-based financial pay. From the standpoint of the University’s general fund, scholarship athletes are effectively full-pays whose tab is being picked up by a “third party,” the University’s own Athletic Department. That’s not a trivial financial contribution.</p>