The University’s Office of the General Counsel is splitting the cost of using outside legal services to aid athletics in the ongoing NCAA investigation, but some of the campus community believe the athletic department should burden the entire cost.
General Counsel works on a number of cases for all units of the University — academic and otherwise. Each unit is charged an overhead assessment rate — a percentage of the unit’s total budget — that covers services such as legal counsel, making the service prepaid @@replaced free with prepaid@@when a unit needs it.
“Legal services are largely funded like a nonprofit group health insurance arrangement,” General Counsel to the University Randy Geller@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Randy+Geller@@ said. “Premiums or ‘assessments’ are charged to each unit to cover some or all of the costs of various University service units, like the Office of General Counsel.”
Bond Shoenick and King,@@http://www.bsk.com/@@ a New York-based law firm mostly comprising former NCAA officials and investigators, was hired by General Counsel back in March 2011 when the NCAA first showed inklings of a possible investigation into the use of Houston recruiter Willie Lyles.@@http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6465439@@
Lawyer Michael Glazier,@@http://www.bsk.com/attorneys/bio.cfm?ID=1556@@ a former NCAA enforcement staffer, has been providing athletics with advice for a fee of $330 per hour. To date, the athletic department has spent over $105,000 for legal advice on this issue alone — half of which will be paid for by University General Counsel, which usually picks up the entire tab for other units.
“The contract between the University and Glazier’s firm is not about a crime or a civil suit,” University economics professor Bill Harbaugh@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Harbaugh@@ said. @@i’m no economist, but…@@“It’s about Chip Kelly’s recruiting and inadequate supervision of him by various athletic directors. The athletic department should pay this bill — not the University’s academic side.”
Geller disagrees.
“Athletics has paid everything that the University has asked it to pay, and the notion that ‘academic funds’ are used to pay for legal services for athletics reflects a lack of understand of how the University operates,” Geller said.@@eh@@
Others are frustrated over the fact that the athletic department pays a reduced overhead assessment rate — a product of a secret deal@@O_o@@ between former University President Dave Frohnmayer and former athletic director Pat Kilkenny. This keeps the athletic overhead rate at 3 percent when most other units pay 6 percent.@@bustin’ out the numbers, sam@@
But in 2010-11, the athletics department paid even less than that. Of the 3 percent of the $88 million budget that would’ve translated into approximately $2.6 million in overhead assessment rates, the department only paid $1,388,655 because of other exemptions.@@ohhhhhhhhhhhh snap@@
“This is another reflection on the priorities of our administration that a subsidy overhead assessment rate is given to the athletic department, while every single academic, student services unit and our own student government are paying higher rates,” ASUO President Ben Eckstein said.
Vice President for Finance and Administration Jamie Moffitt@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Jamie+Moffitt@@ said that athletics is being more than compliant with what is asked of them. On the matter of overhead assessments, Moffitt said that the athletic department’s rate will be open for readjustment this spring when she examines the entire overhead assessment structure for the University.@@you think?@@
“Athletics has paid everything that the University has asked them to cover, but I am going to be taking a look at the agreement. I think we should have one, integrated assessment structure,” Moffitt said.
The athletic department’s compliance on this issue has surprised many,@@@so?@@ but there are those who still remain skeptical of the financial self-sufficiency of the athletic department.
“Jamie Moffitt, Rob Mullens and Randy Geller have made some steps in the right direction,” Harbaugh said. “The academic side will only have to pay half of Glazier’s bill. In the past, we would have got stuck with it all.”