The strength of the athletics department extends beyond its players’ muscles. The department’s budget is also mighty, and it continues to do well while the sour economy drives the university into the red. Gov. Chet Culver’s recent budget cuts have only made the situation worse, leading university officials to consider a surcharge and tuition hike.

The athletics department should rescue the school by opening its vast coffers.

Explaining the university’s financial situation as dire is an understatement. This is the worst fiscal crisis the school has faced in years. The governor’s order that the state’s budget be slashed 10 percent is only the latest in a series of financial setbacks the UI has faced. Last year, departments across the state also faced budget constraints, and next year looks even grimmer. Dwindling state revenue will force the regents and the university to make even deeper cuts. There appears to be no quick turnaround in sight.

But the university doesn’t have to bear its $24.7 million midyear budget cut alone, nor should it.

Unlike its academic counterpart, the athletics department is flush with cash. The football program alone brought in $19 million in revenue from ticket sales to games at Kinnick Stadium last year and expects to bring in even more this year. The Hawkeyes sold out every game last year — an impressive feat considering the country is experiencing the worst recession since the Great Depression. Licensing the Hawkeye logo alone brings in around $2 million a year in fees.

Then there are donations to the athletics department from private donors, which have increased steadily in recent years. The athletics department asks season-ticket holders for gifts ranging from $50 to $600, depending on the section they choose.

This revenue is only a small part of the athletics department’s fiscal 2010 budget, which will be approximately $65 million.

Would it really be imposing, considering the disparate situations between the two, for the university to request aid from athletics?

This request is not an attempt to play down the benefits the UI already receives from athletics, the least of which is financial independence. Hawkeye athletics is the only Iowa public university athletics department not receiving money from the regents’ general fund, freeing up money for academic programs. The free advertising the UI gets from football games saves the university hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and the $8 million Hawkeye athletics pays in tuition for athletes is also welcome revenue.

All these measures are much appreciated, but what the university needs now is some altruism on athletics’ part. The biggest expenditure for the athletics department is salaries — which, at approximately $23 million, makes up 35 percent of the budget. Athletics could follow Culver’s voluntary 10 percent salary cut and cut 10 percent from the salary budget. The $2.3 million the UI would receive may not seem like much relative to the athletics department’s $65 million budget, but it could go a long way and perhaps save the jobs of a couple professors or a handful of teaching assistants.

The move wouldn’t be completely selfless, either. Student-athletes suffer as much from the declining quality in education as non-athletes. For every Dallas Clark or Shonn Greene who makes it to the NFL, there are countless student-athletes who will pursue a career in fields other than the sports. A more significant investment in education would help these athletes.

A voluntary pay cut is only one suggestion. Hawkeye athletics could try a variety of different options, such as diverting some donations to the university’s general fund, if possible. Any method the department could help the university would be significant in these troubled times.

Athletics is a big department that does a lot of good for the UI and the community. In these times, however, the department should flex more of its mighty muscles to put the Black and Gold back in the black.