Athletics should use money

for benefit of public
A University football player is accused of assaulting a woman while intoxicated. Campus alcohol citations are rising noticeably. Alcohol rehabilitation needs are showing no signs of lessening in our area. As treatment and prevention dollars are even less likely to exist in the future, sources of alcohol promotion and acceptance in our community are important to identify.
The University’s Athletics Department signed an exclusive contract with an alcohol company. The terms of these contracts are kept secret from the public and students at the request of the beer company. The result of the contracts is the constant promotion of alcohol use on radio and television by the University. The University also fails to require the Athletics Department to spend any of the secret alcohol sponsorship revenues on positive, sober, community-building messages. Eugene has many events and potential activities that the Athletics Department will not invest any of its advertising revenues into promoting.
As a student, I asked the Athletics Department to invest a few hundred of its many millions of dollars of sponsorship revenues on positive community activities without success. A token gesture is essential to address the message that the University is 100 percent supportive of pro-alcohol advertising. Ninety-nine percent would be a vast improvement, as making one-percent of the messages positive begins an effective strategy of supporting what’s good in our community.

Mike Meyer

senior

Family and Human Services program