VP for Student Life Robin Holmes got all-expense-paid junkets to the national championship games for herself and spouse, so she’s in no position to object to the efforts of the ASUO student government leadership to get Athletic Director Rob Mullens and AAD Eric Roedl to back off their threat to cut the student football ticket allotment, unless ASUO student government coughs up 3% more cash to pay for their latest raises:
On the other hand she’s got hers, so why would she rock the Duck boat? Here’s the latest, from UO undergrad Andrew Lubash, who has a Change.org petition going to protest:
Apr 16, 2015 — Thank you so much for signing this petition and getting your voice heard! However, the work isn’t done.
We’ve reached over 400 students in just 1 day, but we need more visibility! Your current ASUO President (Beatriz) and President-elect (Helena) and I are meeting with VP of Student Life Robin Holmes tomorrow morning at 9am to discuss the negotiations. It would be great if we had over 1,000 signatures by the time of that meeting to show her how upset students are about this. Here are some actions steps that you can take that would help me protect your access to subsidized student football tickets!
(1) Please SHARE the link to this petition as your Facebook status and in any groups you are associated with on campus. Urge your friends to sign and share as well, emphasizing the importance of this issue to students:
https://www.change.org/p/eric-roedl-stop-cutting-subsidized-student-football-tickets/u/new)
(2) The Daily Emerald just posted an article about our work! We are making a difference already! Stay up to date and read/share this article too:
(3) If you are interested in volunteering at all or getting more involved (such as petitioning, building awareness, etc.) and want to help me out. Please send me an email at [email protected] and we will set up a committee to figure out next steps. WE WILL NOT STOP until we protect every single ticket.
Thank you again! Go Ducks!
Andrew Lubash
ASUO Senate Seat 7: Athletics & Contracts Finance Committee
Don’t we have an Economics department on campus? Might it be a good move for the ASUO to bring a faculty member on board for these talks?
If I was a UO student, I’d simply boycott the games for a year, let’s see what the AD has to say about that…. or just stop going altogether and let them “win” student attendance back!? OBVIOUSLY – they don’t REALLY need YOUR support if they are threatening to cut the ‘subsidized’ tickets??? A strange way to ask for support IMO…. I have long held the believe that UO students only serve as a backdrop for propaganda/advertizement purposes. If they want you, they should pay YOU! …
Maybe I am naive but if the administration is serving students and faculty, why is Robin Holmes then bargaining with students and not the AD?
The students voted and Robin Holmes, representing Student Life, should twist Mullen’s arms and not vice versa… Oh wait, she spent students’ money to influence their votes.
I’m no economist, but the spreadsheet provided by Eric Roedl based part of the athletic department’s case for more student money on the “fair market value” (FMV) of their men’s basketball tickets, which he calculated as $1.343 million for 2015-16. Yet that same athletic department bragged just last week that it was lowering ticket prices for next year by an average of 34 percent.
So, if the FMV for hoops is now a third lower, shouldn’t Roedl’s incidental fee demand reflect that change? Didn’t the students’ contribution just become more valuable? But wait …
The FMV for both football and basketball is calculated by adding face-value ticket prices with their combined “donation value” of just over $1.4 million. Seriously? You’re asking students (aka the university’s lifeblood) to help pay that freight without the tax deductibility their parents enjoy (80 percent of donation value)? Does your offer come with a gun and a mask?
The face value of student tickets, with no change in allocation from this year’s levels, for football and basketball in 2015-16 is $2.73 million. The incidental fee money, if left unchanged, going to athletics would again be $1.695 million.
Roedl’s preferred goal is 50 percent, including his canard of donation value. He’s already getting 62 percent of face value.
So, what’s to negotiate?
Tell Robin Holmes to go crawling back to Athletics with a big no. There has to be some conflict with this incidental fee going to athletics to begin with. Guess this proves who Robin Holmes and the upper administration really work for. This is shameful.