San Jose State Teams Targeted

San Jose State’s Academic Senate has voted to limit funding for sports teams and recommended the school withdraw from Division I and the Western Athletic Conference.

The 21-11 vote, conducted by secret ballot Monday, was intended to send a message to incoming president Paul Yu that academics should come ahead of football in tight budget times.

The Academic Senate -- a group of faculty, students, staff and administrators that advises the president -- proposed that savings from athletic funding be transferred to academic programs

“We’re not opposed to football per se, but Division I-A has costs we can’t afford,” said James Brent, the political science professor who pushed for withdrawal.

The senate vote is only symbolic -- presidents have ignored faculty recommendations on athletic funding in the past.

But Brent said he hopes the vote will “counter what the president will hear from a group of very loud boosters who don’t have the best interests of the university as a whole at heart.”