A public meeting was held Wednesday to hear faculty and student concerns over the temporarily instituted random drug testing policy for student-athletes. The policy was put in place on a temporary basis by University General Counsel Randy Geller back in late August to be active through the end of February.
A small group of people gathered in the Walnut Room of the EMU at 1 p.m. to discuss the policy. The meeting lasted about 15 minutes and consisted of one speaker, music professor Brian McWhorter.@@http://uoregon.edu/findpeople/person/Brian*McWhorter@@
He stood up to make a few points about how the NCAA already does its own drug testing, yet 90 percent of Division 1 schools have supplementary policies that are not required. He also pointed out that the policy should go through University Senate before becoming an Oregon Administrative Rule.
I’m still waiting for a response from Amanda Hatch in the general counsel’s office on what the next step in the process for this policy is.
In other news, the University of Wisconsin is considering cutting off business relations with Adidas over its labor practices, saying that the company doesn’t live up to the university’s minimal labor standards. Cornell University did so a couple weeks ago. According to Businessofcollegesports.com, Wisconsin’s current deal with Adidas runs through 2016 and is worth somewhere around $2.5 million.