Priorities

From the Orlando Sentinel:

UCF is giving $166,080 to the athletics association this year, a 60 percent drop from last year's contribution of $393,487. The athletics association also is poised to make a $300,000 payment to the university, the first of 12 annual payments to pay back a $8.7 million loan taken out to make all athletics programs more competitive. "The level of loans we've made is not material to the university's financial health, but it's very important to understand that those are really loans and not grants and that integrity of the process is being respected," Hitt said.

A reader wrote:

How can the level of loans NOT be "material to the university's financial health?" The loans are $8.7 million. The closed programs supposedly cost $6.7 million, right? And, if the university is in such dire straits that it needs to close programs, wouldn't it be demanding that athletics pay some of that money back? Rather than giving them MORE money?