UNLV Working On Plan That Calls For School To Support Athletic Department

UNLV is "working on a plan that calls for university support" to go to the athletic department at the beginning of the fiscal year, a "change that probably will take place next year," according to Mark Anderson of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. UNLV President Len Jessup said that "changing the funding system was top of mind while searching" for an AD, and the subject was "discussed during the interview process" with current AD Desiree Reed-Francois. Jessup added that budgets for other parts of campus are "funded on the front end." How much university support will be provided is "undetermined." However, Reed-Francois said that it "would be similar" to the $5.1M the institution contributed last fiscal year, which ended June 30. Reed-Francois said, "We’re certainly not asking for that type of investment. We just want to have it on the front end so we can budget for it instead of going to the university at the end and saying, 'Hey, we didn’t meet our budget.'" Reed-Francois and Jessup said that they would "like to come up with a funding amount in the spring to use for future athletic budgets." UNLV’s athletic budget is "almost" $38M for FY '17-18 (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 12/3).