The ASUO and the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee look to continue the discussion over issues of accountability in the athletic department as well as the price of student tickets during the Senate meeting Wednesday evening.
The discussion began last term, culminating in a decision by the ASUO Executive to recommend absolutely no new funding for the athletics department in the upcoming academic year. According to ASUO President Ben Eckstein,@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Eckstein@@ there is substantial evidence to suggest that tuition money has been used to fund things throughout the department, including services within the John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes.
The problem of transparency in athletics was originally brought to the table in 2004. To keep the athletic department accountable, a task force made of faculty and students was created to produce a list of 14 ways the athletic department could give back to academics. It was signed by Bill Moos, the athletic director at the time.@@http://blog.oregonlive.com/pac10/2010/02/washington_state_introduces_bi.html@@
Now, eight years later Eckstein believes athletics has not upheld the agreement made in 2004.
“Some of these were followed, but most were resisted,” Eckstein said. “This year, the ASUO is going to try to raise awareness and push the athletic department to give back to the University.”
There have been meetings regarding ways athletics could give back to academics, but nothing has been agreed to. Another big issue surrounding the athletic department is the affordability and accessibility of student tickets for football games.
ASUO Senator and ACFC Chair Ben Bowman@@http://asuo.uoregon.edu/acfc.php?a=32@@ explained savings measures pinpointed at improving the ticket program.
“ACFC agrees with ASUO Executive that the athletic department needs to be more sustainable when it comes to student tickets,” Bowman said.
The first is to exclude the Duck Athletic Fund@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205032763@@ from the calculations on ASUO tickets. To calculate student costs, the athletic department uses the fair-market value. This is based on the cost of a general ticket purchased by a community member.
“Nonstudents pay a donation fee to athletics that is added onto the initial ticket. This is called the Duck Athletic Fund,” Eckstein explained.
Students aren’t expected to pay this fee, however it is factored into the fair-market value, so in turn they are. ASUO has called for an elimination of the DAF in the calculations.
Another solution is to reduce the fair-market value discount from 50 percent to 25 percent. Currently, ASUO purchases tickets at half the price of community member for students. If the discount can be reduced to 25 percent instead of 50 percent, it will alleviate some strain on incidental fees for student tickets.
“We are also talking about making it easy for season-ticket holders to return unused tickets,” Bowman said.
Returning tickets could make a few more spots open to students wishing to go to games.
By the end of the week, the athletic department is expected to produce concrete numbers on the effect these changes will have. From there, it will be easier to see possible solutions.
“Right now we’re just trying to find a middle ground with athletics,” Eckstein said.
A representative from the athletic department was not available for comment at this time.