During Friday’s budget discussion, Kansas University leaders also took questions from the audience, and more than half of them dealt with bonuses paid out and construction projects being considered by the athletics department.

KU staff member Pam Houston called for the department to donate some of those funds to the university.

“At a time when the University of Kansas is so strapped for funds, it seems to me that those private donations could be coming to the university and solving some of our problems,” Houston said. “Either they’re a part of the university or not.”

Provost Richard Lariviere said people have the right to choose how to spend their money.

“That people would spend more money on entertainment is lamentable,” he said. “It reflects a peculiar set of values, but that’s the society we live in.”

Chancellor Robert Hemenway said the department had donated $750,000 to academic scholarships and $250,000 to a cancer initiative at the medical center. The department also pays $9 million in tuition.