Northwestern's facilities being privately funded has helped the school's budgetGETTY IMAGES
Northwestern AD Jim Phillips said the school's budget deficit has impacted the athletic department "greatly in the sense that we have taken an 8-10 percent cut across all sports, across all of our programs," according to the student newspaper THE DAILY NORTHWESTERN. Philips said the athletic department has "felt the same pinch as the rest of the University." He added, "The facilities have been funded privately. That’s the difference. I think sometimes there can be a little bit of misconception." Phillips: "Our coaches have been great. Our staff has been great. It’s what the entire University [has] done so we should feel the same effects. And so you look at where you can trim your budget some, you look at where you can reduce expenses, where you can reduce some of your costs." When asked where some of that trimming has come from, Phillips said, "We really didn’t try to tell each of the units or each of the programs where we wanted it to come from, we tried to listen to them where they thought that some of those cuts should come from. In one program, it may have been travel. In one program, it could have been operational. In one program, it could have been staffing." Phillips said it is ultimately his decision whether he would "accept where they were asking to take that 8-10 percent from but it’s really been collaborative" (DAILYNORTHWESTERN.com, 11/27).
