Troy Brynelson has the report in the ODE, here. The cover illustration is a little over the top, but the facts seem correct: this blog can be controversial, and, obviously, I haven’t vandalized any cars, I am disturbed to hear that someone has, and I feel bad for the students involved.
I wished that this story had reported on how utterly ineffective the IAC was before I was first elected in 2011.
Think back. Frohnmayer and Kilkenny added a money losing baseball program. Then they put UO hundreds of millions in debt for the basketball arena, while hiding the revenue forecasts from OUS and the state legislature. UO gave Bellotti an unfunded $500K pension, and an unwritten contract. UO’s General Counsel Emerita Melinda Grier hid the facts from curious reporters, and got fired when the news broke. UO looked ridiculous, and our new President Lariviere’s credibility took a major hit.
The IAC was clueless throughout all this.
After the faculty elected me to the IAC, I started making public records requests, filing petitions with the AG, and posting them on this blog. I discovered that UO was paying for the Jaqua Center and part of the Matt Arena land bonds out of the academic budget. I found out that the academic side was paying for the lawyer defending the football coach and the athletic department in an NCAA infractions case. I found out that Frohnmayer and Kilkenny had made secret deals to cover the cost of underground parking at the Arena, and (apparently) an athlete-only lot across from the Jaqua Center. I found out about another deal to cut the athletic department’s overhead rate in half. When this was exposed UO raised the rate by $555K – money saved for academics.
Last year the UO Senate voted 17 to 4 for my resolution to end these subsidies. On Wednesday the Senate will take up my resolution to commission a report to look into how well the Jaqua Center serves the interests of student-athletes.
And the athletic department and its boosters are now claiming the IAC is dysfunctional, and I’m the reason? Right.
That ‘athlete-only’ parking space is 90-95% empty – ALL THE TIME. Check the free city parking next to dog park and Autzen Stadium. The number of student athletes (and other athletic staff/admins?) parking there is consistently larger than at the Jaqua/Franklin site. Why? Because city parking is free (and our athletes are poor), and because our esteemed athletes actually choose to park closer to their various training sites. The unutilized Athlete-only Jaqua parking space has failed.
I would welcome that the upcoming senate resolution passes and that the report shows how the parking space is underutilized. The Athlete-only deal should be revoked and the space be opened to staff and faculty only.
Could the lack of athletes parking at the Jaqua / Franklin site be a crude indicator of how many Student Athletes actually benefit from the Jock Box?
Great post. Recapping the gains that have been made (mostly by UOM) is important.