If you keep up with the local news, you know that the state of Iowa's accounting procedures have made sure that the Univesrity of Northern Iowa is broke. You are probably also aware, given the nature of the university's PR efforts and the priorities of many citizens, that UNI has decided to cut its baseball program.

Many academic programs at the university will fire all adjunct instructors, refuse to hire any new faculty and increase the size of some classes by 50 percent, all of which are methods usually assumed to decrease the quality of education.

What is the Cedar Valley's reaction? I'm not sure that anyone noticed until it was announced that the school will kill one of its many athletic programs. That seemed to get more attention.

Some people were outraged, some diluted their beer at the sports pubs with tears, and some are even joining together to raise the $1.2 million that appears to be necessary to save the program.

I have nothing against baseball and I like sports, but UNI actually has a "U" in its name, which stands for "university."

In terms of the university's mission, how do these expensive athletic programs achieve the goals of the institution?

Their purpose cannot be to ensure that our students are physically fit.

Over 96 percent of our students will never actually participate in these athletic programs.

Are the teams supposed to represent the school? Any team that has any chance of gaining national attention is most likely to be a semi-professional one that the university purchases. Its players have only one thing in common with the school they play for. That school gave them the best deal they could reasonably get.

Both players and coaches will go elsewhere, given a better deal.

Is the program necessary to get national PR for the university? That is a good possibility, but if that is our goal, we are failing. Other than the good PR from an occasional basketball team, we get a fraction of national exposure compared to other schools like the University of Iowa.

The only rational reason for the UNI athletic program is the myth of the Iowa Kid and the demand of Iowans that its schools provide them with athletic entertainment.

This, however, is coming at a very high price; a cost high enough to make the savings from the baseball program almost irrelevant. That is one of the reasons that the coaches and players in that program were so upset.

They were the bone that was thrown under the table to the dogs.

For the purposes of evaluation and accreditation, UNI compares itself with nine similar universities around the nation. For example, we are currently conducting an excessively bureaucratic self-evaluation of programs, which requires us to gauge ourselves compared to these schools.

So how do we compare on how we spend our money? UNI is next to last in the percent of budget spent on instruction, in the bottom five for academic support, the bottom three in research support, next to last on the percent of the budget spent on scholarships, and dead last on student services.

Yet, we are No. 1 in the percent of budget transferred to "auxiliary enterprises."

Dr. Hans Isakson, a professor of economics, recently released a report to the university's Faculty Senate in which he stated, "A reasonable person might regard instruction as the major mission of a university such as UNI. Yet, according to the data, instruction is given a relatively low priority at UNI."

The major expense in "auxiliary enterprises" is transfers to UNI athletics, which does not cover its own expenses. How much actual money is this? Over $42 million in the last ten years was transferred from academics and student support; money transferred from 12,000 students and 800 faculty members to some 300 athletes, 40 coaches, and a large supporting staff of trainers and administrators.

Why are we doing this? The reason is irrational and maybe even fundamentally immoral. We are removing education money paid by the taxpayers, students, and their parents to provide athletic entertainment to Iowans, who have amply demonstrated that they are unwilling to pay the gate price of that entertainment.

The economic distress that we are all facing is real. Iowans may need to decide if they would rather hear UNI Sports Network play-by-play announcer Gary Rima shouting "Oh, baby!," or whether they would rather hear a student's name being called out at graduation.