On Feb. 11, @GoTerpsGolf tweeted, “The boys with their UMD school issued IPAD’s. Nice to be a student athlete @ Maryland! # TerpPride # terpgolf pic.twitter.com/2XOb81fO“

The athletic department distributed new gadgets to all student-athletes this week, but they weren’t new cleats, sticks or uniforms.

Instead, the athletic department spent more than $281,000 from the NCAA’s Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund on iPads for each team member, said athletics department spokesman Zack Bolno. The fund’s aim is to benefit student-athletes and has traditionally been used for academic purposes. University officials said the iPads are to help student-athletes in the classroom, noting the money could not have been used for other purposes, but that hasn’t prevented questions from some members of the seven athletic teams that were cut last summer in an effort to balance the department’s budget.

The athletic department isn’t the first to provide students with the popular Apple tablets. Students in the Honors College’s Digital Cultures and Creativity living-learning program began receiving iPads in fall 2010 when the device was integrated into the curriculum.

The iPads will keep all athletes connected academically and help them stay in contact while traveling for games and practices, department officials said. But Craig Morgan, a former member of the track and cross country teams, which were both cut, said such communication between athletes was never an issue.

“Every athlete already has a cell phone and a computer,” the senior criminology and criminal justice major said. “I don’t see how an iPad will further facilitate communication between the department and athletes and coaches.”

In previous years, the same fund has been used for medical expenses and flights for student-athletes to travel home for funerals, Bolno said. Last year, the fund helped replace computers in the department’s Academic Support Computer Lab.

Department officials said they are unsure of how much money is sectioned off for the fund each year.

“Often times the fund is used for educational purposes, as it was in this case,” department officials said in a news release Tuesday. “It cannot be applied to a general fund, or in the case of the University of Maryland, to reinstate athletic programs.”

And though department officials said they were unable to redistribute money from the fund, Mano Motsiopoulos, a former member of the swimming and diving team, said he felt shortchanged.

“The iPad is just another cog in the comical timeline of events that we’ve had to deal with,” the senior economics major said. “Last year, we found out they were cutting our teams and everything we had been working for had been cut short. Next they came out with the move to the Big Ten, and we questioned why they didn’t do that earlier. And now these iPads. I feel cheated.”

Some athletes and coaches, however, said the iPads will help them outside of the classroom as well. For example, coaches can send scouting videos directly to their athletes through quicker, more efficient modes of communication.

“I’m excited about it because in some ways, we can use it as a team, like I can hit a button and they can get scouting reports and videos immediately,” Morgan said, who also plans to make digital playbooks. “It’s the same notion for a professor during classes where they can be hooked up immediately.”

For Gordon Murie, a center back on the men’s soccer team, the technology is beneficial, if unnecessary. He received his iPad Monday and has already taken it to class, where the preloaded apps have helped him with note-taking and studying.

“I am definitely enjoying it, but when they first told us, I was like, ‘Why?’ I don’t understand why we really need this,” the senior kinesiology major said. “It’s helpful, but it has definitely annoyed the other students.”

Athletes are liable for their iPads, according to the athletic department’s release. Should one break, an athlete must replace it for $600 — each iPad is valued at $558 — because the tablets are university property. Athletes cannot sell their iPads and must return them before graduating, withdrawing from the university or transferring to another school.

Although this university is following in the footsteps of schools such as Ohio State, Wichita State and Fresno State — where athletes received iPads last year — some students said it’s unfair to grant athletes special treatment.

“Student-athletes are all students first and athletes second, so they should be treated just like the rest of the students,” said Charles Myers, a senior criminology and criminal justice major. “They shouldn’t be singled out.”