11/14/2011: That would be the President of UO’s student government, Ben Eckstein. He’s backed up by Ben Bowman, chair of the student Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee. From the excellent ODE story by Rockne Andrew Roll:
The ASUO Executive and the Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee are sending a message to the athletic department: “We’re not getting our money’s worth,” ACFC Chair Sen. Ben Bowman said.
So both the Executive and the ACFC have recommended the athletic department receive no increase in its student-fee funded budget for next year. It wasn’t a hard decision. “There was unanimous agreement in the committee and the Executive,” Bowman said. …
The ACFC announcement also comes on the heels of the University’s release of a memorandum of understanding between former University President Dave Frohnmayer and former Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny. This agreement details a $375,000 annual payment by the University administration to the athletic department for the use of Autzen Stadium’s presidential suite — nearly the equivalent of President Lariviere’s $426,936 annual salary.
The agreement also fixed the athletic department’s assessment rate at three percent through 2012. Assessments are payments University departments and programs pay to the University for administrative services. The assessment rate for most organizations, including the ASUO, is over twice that at seven percent. Eckstein referenced this agreement in his comments on the benchmark. “The athletic department gets more than we even know,” he said. “This is one way of making sure that students get a fair shake.” …
It would be nice to see hardball like this from President Lariviere, someday. Steve Duin’s Oregonian column on the secret Frohnmayer Kilkenny deal is here. The agreement is here. A Jack Bog post on this, with interesting comments, is here. “Regular students at U of O tired of paying for jocks”.
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