The Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee will host an open forum on Nov. 21 in the EMU’s Coquille room at 4 pm. This event is being put on by the ACFC so that it may discuss the athletics ticketing agreement as well as receiving feedback from students about how their money is spent. This is one of the two announced events that ASUO is hosting to inform the student body about what it does.
Many members of the committee will be attending this open forum to answer student questions, including the sitting president of the ACFC Cynthia Aguilar-Arizmendi.
According to an email from Aguilar’s, this forum hopes to discuss the ACFC’s agreement with the athletic department at the University of Oregon. This agreement outlines the amount of tickets for football and basketball games reserved for students, grants students entrance to “any regular-season” athletic event and outlines procedures for ticketing distribution and lottery – including the GameDay app which students use to claim their tickets.
“All nine of ACFC’s contracts and/or agreements are paid for by students,” Aguilar said in an email to the Daily Emerald. “Because of this and the fact that Athletics is requesting an increase in their budget for the coming fiscal year (20-21), the committee found it important to reach out to students to see what they think and how satisfied (or not) they are with the ticketing process and access to sporting events.”
Related, from 2017: “ASUO pays athletic department $10,000 in effort to save student football and basketball tickets”
Beyond Athletics: The Incidental Fee
Each University of Oregon student pays $259.25 a term in Incidental Fees. Students already pay plenty of fees to the university, so it is easy to lose track of where it all goes. Aside from the Athletics open forum, ASUO Senate President Isaiah Boyd also has plans to host ASUO’s “First Annual Assembly.”
“We want students to get an exact idea of where their money is going,” Boyd said about the forum. “Educating that is my goal, especially since we’re in the budget process. We want to get a feel of what [the student body] think can be improved and what can be let go.”
During the First Annual Assembly, ASUO senators as well as many student groups will speak on what the I-Fee is and how it is distributed. ASUO has made the effort to involve the Residence Hall Association, First-year Interest Groups and Academic Residential Communities around campus to broaden the forum and make it more accessible to first-year students. The event is tentatively scheduled for January 10th in the EMU Crater Lake room on the first floor.
The money compiled from the Incidental Fee goes towards funding student groups on campus, keeping programs like SafeRide running and making the EMU what it is today by ensuring its amenities are available to all students.
“The whole goal of the I-Fee Forum is not so much to talk about the financials, but also start talking about ‘here’s how ASUO operates.’” Boyd said. “I’m hoping I can get the executive branch tied into that. Right now just because I’m legislative, it’s really more focused on the financial.”
ASUO’s Executive branch will be in attendance of this event, according to Vice President Nyla Jamison.
Boyd said he decided to plan this event due to his concern that the general student body was not only ill-informed on the dealings of ASUO, but also ignorant to what ASUO is. Boyd’s concerns are not unsubstantiated, as the past few years of ASUO engagement have been substantially low.
Related: “How much do you know about ASUO?,” the Emerald’s past coverage of ASUO engagement.
The event will feature ASUO recognized student groups as well as many senators themselves. This forum/seminar will also act as a platform for students to ask questions directly to the participants.
