Inside Iowa State

March 31, 2006

Pollard: Discontinued sports could return when financing is solid

by Diana Pounds

"What's it going to take for us to continue to pursue academic and athletic excellence?" athletics director Jamie Pollard asked during a brief talk to Faculty Senate March 28. "It takes finances and it takes facilities."

Pointing out that the athletics department receives no state tax dollars, Pollard told the senators, "we have to find ways to reach out and touch more people, raise more dollars, sell more tickets, market ourselves. We have to do that to be able to provide those student-athletes a great experience."

Bringing back baseball

Pollard was asked about the prospects for bringing baseball back to the Cyclone intercollegiate athletics roster.

"To me, baseball is apple pie and Chevrolet and it's Big 12," he answered. "But the harsh reality is we have to take care of the sports we have . . . Baseball is an expensive sport. The average budget in the Big 12 is about $1.2 million on an annual basis.

"I'm not interested in providing an opportunity to be the 12th place team in the Big 12 and to do that at the expense of a lot of other student-athletes we currently have."

Pressed on a timetable for bringing back discontinued sports, Pollard said his goal would be to bring men's swimming back within 5 years, men's tennis within 7 years and men's baseball within 10 years.

In other business, the Faculty Senate:

• Voted Jim Hutter, political science associate professor, and Hilary Seo, library assistant professor, to represent the senate on the Athletic Council.
• Approved a proposal by the department of entomology to discontinue the undergraduate secondary major in pest management. No students are enrolled in the program. Pest management courses will continue to be offered.

More senate coverage: Senate takes a first look at a proposal to create an engineering minor for non-engineering students.

"I'm not interested in providing an opportunity to be the 12th place team in the Big 12 and to do that at the expense of a lot of other student-athletes we currently have."

Jamie Pollard