UCI Cuts Athletic Fund-Raising Job : Colleges: In dire need of funding, university trims budget by laying off assistant athletic director.

The UC Irvine athletic department, reeling from a statewide university budget crisis, has taken the unlikely step of eliminating the job of chief athletic fund raiser.

Mike Tracey, assistant athletic director for fund development the past two years, was told Friday that he is being laid off.

“This is part of the mandate we have to balance our budget,” Athletic Director Tom Ford said.

Tracey, who headed a spring fund drive that succeeded in reaching its $310,000 goal, will work through the end of the month.

“We’ve cut the sports as far as we can, and the only areas left to consider are support positions,” said Ford, who will take on many of Tracey’s fund raising and marketing duties. “What this says to me is a lot of us will have to do more than we have, in areas that are not our direct responsibilities.”

Irvine announced in May that it intended to eliminate baseball and men’s track and cross-country because of a projected $319,000 deficit this year and further anticipated cuts in university funding. Since then, university officials have said they will reinstate track and cross-country if supporters raise $70,000 by Aug. 3.

Ironically, Irvine administrators attributed some of the recent cutbacks to insufficient fund raising.

“We hate to lose (Tracey),” Ford said. “He achieved the goals we had established this year. He did a good job, and was also doing our marketing.”

The university earlier decided not to fill a vacant marketing position in the athletic department.

Tracey, who formerly has worked in marketing and sales in the airline industry, also has a community college teaching credential. He said he is undecided on what type of job he will pursue.

“The thing is, I feel real good about what we have been doing,” Tracey said, adding that the $310,000 generated this year was the most money Irvine has raised in a fund drive not related to the Bren Center.

Tracey said attempts to raise money are inhibited because seating for basketball games, a typical lure, was committed for 10 years during the Bren Center building drive.

“We were missing some of the components of Division I fund raising. That prime seating was one, another was a winning program,” Tracey said. “We were moving in the right direction, but it didn’t appear to be enough to satisfy the administration.”