The Student Coalition On Reprioritizing Education held a rally in front of Matthew Knight Arena@@http://www.matthewknightarena.com/@@ Thursday night, demanding revenue from the athletic department be used to fund academics at the University.
The rally was held to draw attention to the lack of transparency within athletics and called on Rob Mullens, the athletic director, to make a change.@@http://university.kval.com/content/uo-hires-rob-mullens-new-athletic-director@@
The rally was led by the ASUO Elections Coordinator Cedar Cosner@@http://asuo.uoregon.edu/executive.php?a=12@@ and the ASUO Communications Director Andrew Rogers@@http://asuo.uoregon.edu/executive.php?a=12@@. The group met at the EMU Amphitheater and received signs.
“It is time for a change,” Cosner said. “Students are the reasons for athletic success. We should reap the benefits.”
Protesters included members of the ASUO Executive and Senate, as well as concerned students looking for a change.
“We need to have our educational needs met first and foremost,” Rogers said. “Rob Mullens needs to put students first.”
The group of about 60 began marching toward Matthew Knight Arena, carrying signs and chanting, “Hey hey, quack quack, time for Mullens to give back.”
“It is wrong that a student can receive a student ticket to a football or basketball game but not find a seat in the library,” University sophomore Blake Hampton said.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Blake+Hampton@@
SCORE members gathered around the entrance to the arena and continued to chant in the cold and rain. The rally was met with a roar of boos from people attending the basketball game.
Colin Rice, a University senior@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Colin+Rice@@, thought the group was just wasting people’s time.
“The people that are complaining are the same ones who will snap their fingers and give $170,000 to OSPIRG,” he said. “It is sent to Salem, and we don’t know what it is used for. If they wanna see this money, I wanna see that money.”
Rally members were respectful of campus police and worked with arena security. They moved around the grounds of the arena in order to be heard by everyone.
At the event, ASUO Sen. Jeremy Hedlund @@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Jeremy+Hedlund@@talked about his discussions with the athletic department.
“We asked them to give 25 cents from every to ticket to academics, and they said no,” he said. “There are students who can’t afford to be here, and they won’t donate 25 cents to scholarships.”
After about half an hour, SCORE moved back through campus. The chants echoed off residence halls and people looked out their windows.
The group reconvened in the EMU amphitheater and left with their soggy signs. Many of them had lost their voices.@@this originally said ‘most,’ but I doubt that@@
Rogers and Cosner agreed that it went well.
“Obviously students are concerned with the way things are going,” Rogers said. “We want to target Rob Mullens and make sure he knows that all students deserve the best resources.”