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“Minnesota State Moorhead’s athletic department had to cut its budget roughly 1 percent as part of the school’s plan to close a $9 million budget gap.

“I can’t just say it was athletics, there were some places that couldn’t be cut without cutting beyond the bone,” MSUM President Edna Szymanski said Tuesday after MSUM unveiled its plan to balance its budget for the next two years. “We did not do across-the-board cuts here.”

Dragons athletic director Doug Peters said he felt fortunate the cuts to the athletic department were minimal.

Peters credited longtime sports information director Larry Scott for helping the athletic department make its budget.

Peters said a large chunk of the roughly $36,000 that needed to be cut from the $3.1 million athletic budget was eaten up when Scott took an early retirement incentive package.

Scott’s salary was $65,374. The school is in the process of hiring his replacement. Peters said Scott’s position has been re-named the assistant athletic director for media and public relations.

“He was looking to retire in the next few years, but he chose to now because he would rather take the early incentive and save a position somewhere else within the department,” Peters said.

Szymanski said Tuesday the school would be able to solve its budget gap over the next two years without layoffs.

“Today I think was a huge relief for many, many people. We still have a long way to go, that’s for sure,” MSUM head women’s basketball coach Karla Nelson said. “I think now it’s time for us … to think outside the box and see how we can progress during this really tough time. I don’t think we’ve gone backwards at all.”

Szymanski said she still wants to see the athletic department grow, but that will likely take time in the current economic climate.

“In athletics … we have got to increase those athletic scholarships and we have to increase the amount of money in athletics, but we are not going to be there for a little while,” Szymanski said. “It was important to me to try and preserve athletics and to do what I could to help them build their future.”

MSUM funds five men’s and nine women’s varsity teams, offering a combined 38.1 scholarships for those programs. That is less than half the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference limit of 90 scholarships for all sports.

“It is to the bone,” Szymanski said. “This is the leanest, meanest athletic department you’re ever going to find. But my hope right now is that we can raise some additional funds for it, particularly in the area of scholarships.”

Peters will be entering his third year as Dragons athletic director this fall.

“It means we get to move forward and focus on growing and moving the Dragon athletic department towards the vision that I have for it,” Peters said.

“To be able to get through reducing your overall budget by $9 million and not have to lay anybody off is a miracle, And it took a lot of hard work by a lot of people.””