9/9/2010: Ron Bellamy has a long interview with AD Ron Mullens in the RG. He likes the Jock Box and thinks it didn’t take away from anything else. Really? How much did the academic side get for the land? $1. How much are we going to pay just to replace the parking slots? ~$100 each per year. Guess he didn’t read the contract Frohnmayer signed with Knight. Mullens says 40% of UO’s athletic operating budget comes from donations, so Duck sports costs taxpayers about $15 million a year to make up for the deductions the boosters get. Mostly softball questions with no follow up. We’ll have to wait to see what Rachel Bachman gets out of this guy. Good to see Lorraine Davis go back to proctoring exams at away games though. I wonder if Mullens is going to keep paying her travel expenses? When is Hawaii on the schedule next? Actually, he does say regarding approving expenditures that “I am looking to tweak and create a level of accountability throughout the department.” He might also want to look into that $7 million gap between the $13 million the UO Foundation told their donors would go to his department for student athlete support, and the $6 million his department told the NCAA they spent on student athlete support. Just a thought. And then there’s this:
Q: Do you see any attempt to limit some of the excesses, as it were, that drew criticism in the Jaqua Center?A: I think that criticism is unfair, if it exists. That is the best facility of its kind in the country. …
It exists, you know it exists, and denial is not the best way to start off dealing with the legitimate concerns of the academic side of the university.
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