Tag Archives: jock box

Who pays Glazier, and Duck Beach Sand Volleyball developments

By | | Uncategorized
31 Comments
8/21/2013 update: After telling the faculty on the IAC we had to keep her presentation about Sand Volleyball secret, AAD Lisa Peterson has now blabbed all about it to Andrew Greif in the Oregonian. Interesting double standard.


8/12/2013 IAC meeting update: The meeting took place as scheduled and lasted for about 40 min.

I said I’d talked to a few reporters about the rumors, and asked if the meeting was secret. AAD Lisa Peterson said it was her understanding that her presentation would be confidential. I asked why Beach Volleyball plans should be a secret. Ms Peterson said that she was not prepared to proceed unless the meeting was confidential.
The committee discussed this, and the consensus was that it was best to agree to confidentiality and maybe learn something and perhaps even have a chance to be consulted. So I agreed to keep the details of the meeting confidential, and I told Ms Peterson that I would explain this to reporters.

When I started taking notes on my laptop, she asked if I was blogging about the meeting. I reiterated that I had promised to keep the details of the meeting secret. She said she was just checking up on me to make sure. 

In terms of the substance of the meeting, I assume it’s public knowledge that any decision to add NCAA Sand Volleyball and be playing by spring needs to be submitted to the NCAA by Oct 1, that the USC Sand Volleyball facility cost $5 million, and that Nike sells beach volleyball gear.

Sorry, wish I could say more – but it’s a secret! 


8/10/2013 update: Word is that Rob Mullens is sending AAD Lisa Peterson to “consult” with the IAC about the possibility that UO might add a beach volleyball team. Monday at 3:30, second floor of the Jock Box. This is a sham, Rob Mullens made this decision long ago. The location is presumably to make it easier to keep out reporters and students wondering where their money is going, since they aren’t allowed up the stairs. Last time they held the IAC meeting in the student union and then the IAC, led by Andy Karduna, voted to kick out the student reporters – big mistake.

Here’s a pdf from the volleyball association on the current status of the sport. While Kilkenny’s competitive cheerleading dream seems to have failed to make it with the NCAA as a sport, “Sand Volleyball” has. That means it helps UO’s Rob Mullens boost his ranking in the NCAA Director’s Cup competition, for which he gets a fat bonus:

One of many bonuses in his ~$650K a year contract. Plus car, of course.

Meanwhile I finally got the BANNER reports on who paid Glazier. These take 5 minutes to run, but Hubin’s public records office managed to stall releasing them for months. Full dump here. The upshot? Jamie Moffitt had been charging half the cost to the academic side:

but Berdahl started making the jocks start paying the full cost in Feb 2012:

Gottfredson still hasn’t made a substantive response to the May 2013 Senate resolution on ending the millions in Jock Box and Matt Court subsidies, but he did cut back on the secret overhead subsidy Frohnmayer had given out. From what I can tell he didn’t backslide on the Glazier costs either, though it’s a bit hard to figure out – I’ve put the question to AAD Eric Roedl for clarification.


7/23/2013: Unverified rumor down at the UO faculty club beach cabana is that UO is going to add this, the latest NCAA women’s sport. They call it “Sand Volleyball”, video here. I’m on the Senate Intercollegiate Athletics Committee, which Rob Mullens is supposed to consult before adding new sports. This is the first I’ve heard. Maybe it’ll be the tit-for-tat for an end to the jock box and Mac Court bond subsidies? Or Kilkenny just got bored with watching baseball and competitive cheerleading?

Meanwhile, if you’re curious about how much of the bill for Mike Glazier’s fees on the Kelly/Lyles investigation UO’s academic side had to pay, it took15 days just to get an estimate from UO Public Records, and it ain’t cheap:

The University of Oregon has received your public records request for “(Existing) documentation revealing all sources of the funds used to compensate the law firm retained by the University of Oregon in connection with the recently completed NCAA investigation of the school’s football program; andWith reference to the preceding request, existing documentation which identifies all persons who participated in the decision that University of Oregon would incur such expense (involve counsel in the first instance and be “represented” within the investigation)” on 07/08/2013, attached. The office has at least some documents responsive to your request.  By this email, the office is providing you with an estimate to respond to your requests.

The office estimates the actual cost of responding to your request to be $523.98. 

Shoes too! We are the University of Nike, dot com.

By | | Uncategorized
220 Comments
8/18/2013: U of Nike shoes now available from Nike. Click here to order yours before the lawyers find out!


8/9/2013: U of Nike T-shirts now available! Click here to order from CafePress. $4 from each shirt goes to help UO Matters pay UO’s exorbitant public records fees, and maybe buy me a wee dram or two. Now also in Kelly green, by popular demand. Order one of each before Nike’s lawyers shut this down.


8/8/2013 Sweat Shop update: Some commenter – obviously not an economist – suggests I get the University of Nike t-shirts made in China. This is probably a reference to the 2000 Worker’s Rights Consortium fiasco, where UO President Dave Frohnmayer signed UO up with the WRC, which was fighting what they claimed was Nike’s use of “sweat shop labor” in countries like China. Phil Knight famously said Frohnmayer had “shredded the bonds of trust” with him, and he hasn’t given a dime to UO’s academic side since.

Well, the sad truth is that I can’t afford to get these U of Nike shirts made in China. Their economy has been booming ever since they started inviting foreign investments from “sweat shop” companies like Nike. Chinese wages are now so high that I’d have no profits left over to pay President Gottfredson for public records! Here’s some recent data:

The comparator is India, which until recently pursued an idiotic Ghandian policy of economic self reliance. Their people paid the price: still making t-shirts for $1500 a year, while plenty of Chinese are now rich enough to send their kids to the University of Nike for an education. Often in economics.

Hmm, maybe Uncle Phil is smarter, and not quite as evil, as some people think?

8/8/2013 updates: Ian Campbell of the Oregon Daily Emerald has a great piece on the true cost to UO students of the University of Nike’s boring blow-out wins:

The average college student only gets a total of 132 days — Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays — per year to party, which means wasting some of that time watching the Ducks beat Arizona by 49 doesn’t become a high priority after the third quarter ….

This may explain Oregon’s disappointing #20 finish in the prestigious Princeton Review rankings. Although for a more serious take on the connection between big-time college football wins and college grades, read this article by some U of Nike economists.

8/7/2013 update: CSN is now reporting the Sweat Shop cost $138M. UO’s Risk Management Office probably has an exact number, since it must be on our insurance policy by now. Say, I wonder if VPFA Jamie Moffitt is going to make Rob Mullens pay any of the premiums for it? And spokesjock Craig Pintens is not backing off the “We are the U of Nike” statement.

 8/6/2013 update: The University of Nike needs a motto for the t-shirts and coffee cups. In Latin, of course. Any suggestions? If you need inspiration, watch the Register Guard’s video below. Thanks to an anon commenter for the link, and to football coach Matt Helfrich for this quote:

“Incredible function the other night, there were about 20 boosters, myself included, crying over the personal nature of, whatever it was”.

 Smells like #2 from here, Coach:

8/6/2013 update: UO finally lets local reporters see inside the new football Sweat Shop. Diane Dietz of the RG takes it as an opportunity to write about UO’s decrepit classrooms, and RG Columnist Bob Welch says:

“And if this is also about coddling athletes — and let’s be honest, it is — then what happens when these young men head out into a world that’s real, not fantasy?

Besides concussion induced brain damage and the chance to try and sue the NCAA to get the rights to their name back, you mean? No wonder Mullens gave SI a week’s lead for their fluff. The letters to the editors attacking this waste of tax-deductible money are also good.

U of Nike’s Jeff Hawkins: 
“… we’re all in this together.” 
Except for the money of course, 
that’s just for the AD and the coaches.
Typical UO classroom in PLC, no AC.
Formica table, to remind students to study hard so they don’t end up living in a trailer while they repay their loans. Chairs were carefully selected to show off the last 120 years of seating technology. Floor is of vintage linoleum, with tastefully exposed rough asbestos edges, and a few missing pieces to represent the required courses that UO doesn’t have room to teach this quarter.

Meanwhile, Gottfredson still hasn’t appointed a committee to implement the May Senate resolution for ending athletic subsidies and getting the jocks to contribute to the academic side. How about taxing these excessive donations to the jocks, and using the money for UO’s academic mission? Unlikely, Kitzhaber is still trying to figure out just how many jock-sniffers to appoint to the UO Board.

 8/5/2013: Professor Hawkins wasn’t kidding. Type “UniversityofNike.com” into your browser and see where it takes you. That .com really hurts. Couldn’t we have at least kept the .edu extension? Still no retraction from Hawkins and Mullens, and no comment at all from President Gottfredson.

8/2/2013: Rob Mullens in the NY Times, on the new UO football “Sweat Shop”, as it’s being called around campus:

“People will complain, but this is not excessive,” said Rob Mullens, the university’s athletic director.

Of course it’s not excessive, you deserve it all Rob. We just want you to stop spending tuition money on jock stuff. But our efforts to name this building have come to naught. Instead, the athletic department has decided to rename the entire university:

“We are the University of Nike,” said Jeff Hawkins, the senior associate athletic director of football administration and operations. “We embrace it. We tell that to our recruits.”

Just the sort of publicity that will encourage parents to entrust their kids, and $45K a year, to UO. And it turns out Mr. Hawkins is on the payroll for a $29,500 performance bonus, as faculty. Hmm:

I’m guessing Professor Hawkins will soon issue a heartfelt apology regretting how his remarks were misinterpreted, along the lines of the one UO spokesperson Dave Williford had to make regarding his comments to the NYT back in December 2011. To be followed by another bonus from Dean Rob Mullens.

7/31/2013: Back in 2010 the NY Times reported that the UO students were calling the Jaqua athlete-only tutoring center the “Jock Box”.

OK, maybe that was because I made up the name and then told the reporter that’s what everyone on campus was calling it. The point is that it stuck, and you can see Mullens and the JH admins wince every time they hear it. So, anyone got a good sobriquet for Knight’s latest gift?


 There’s the coach’s sous-chef: UO job posting at http://jobs.uoregon.edu/unclassified.php?id=4301 

 And some more background on this lovely gift, from 11/22/2010:

Oregonian headline: “State board approves Phil Knight-University of Oregon request after Richard Lariviere warns of ‘profound’ consequences”

Ron Bellamy of the RG offers a milquetoast recap of a story reported by Bill Graves and Rachel Bachman in the Oregonian back in June: Phil Knight is building more athletic facilities for UO. As in the past, these tax-deductible gifts will cost taxpayers a bundle. They also require UO to pay for all sorts of silly things – like a “football museum curator” as a condition of the gift. I wonder if the academic side is going to pay that too, like we do the $2 million a year Jock Box operations? Read Bachman for details on how Phil Knight’s consigliere Howard Slusher made Lariviere an offer he couldn’t refuse.

8/3/2013: I’ve got to start the voting for top 5 names soon to get this on the Senate agenda for the next meeting, so comments close Monday. And we could use ideas for the youtube video. Our casting director is searching for the “Go Ducks Nutsack Man”, since he’s already got the sweaty jock-strap. Any recent sightings?

Update: Gottfredson repudiates "U of Nike", fires Hawkins and Mullens

By | | Uncategorized
32 Comments
8/12/2013 update: The Daily Emerald is trying to use Dave Hubin’s public records office to get to the bottom of things:

Strategic Communication emails 

Requester: Crump, Jake
Organization: Oregon Daily Emerald
Initial Request Date: 08/12/2013 Status: Requesting/Reviewing Records 

To view any and all emails dated Aug. 1 through Aug. 11, between UO VP for strategic communication Phil Weiler, UO VP for university advancement Mike Andreasen and the following athletic department employees:· Jeff Hawkins· Rob Mullens· Craig Pintens· Dave Wiliford· Andy McNamara 

We would like this search to look for, but is not limited to, the following keywords: “university of nike”, nike, the Register-Guard, “letter to the editor,” the New York Times, Sports Illustrated and “universityofnike.com

Still no word from Hubin on waiving fees for student-journalists. The STC voted unanimously to support this, and Hubin said the administration would move expeditiously on it. That was in February. Seems like Gottfredson got cold feet.

8/12/2013 update: Looking for a scapegoat Rob? There’s a rumor that Mullens almost fired Hawkins last week, for letting slip to reporters what everyone over in the Moshofsky center has bragged about in private for years. Meanwhile, a very interesting RG story by Diane Dietz today on the unhealthy kind of competition the Jock Box and Sweat Shop nurture:

How do you teach humility in the context of such world-class facilities? 

“There has to be a relationship,” Doty [US Army lieutenant colonel and West Point instructor, retired] said, “where this quarterback is a great quarterback, and he’s going to win a Heisman Trophy — blah, blah, blah, blah — but he’s also still a student at the University of Oregon, and he needs to behave and be treated within the classroom and in the community as just another guy. Most importantly, he needs to understand that.” 

Pendleton [UO philosophy PhD and co-founder of the Sports and Conflict Institute] said the lavish buildings reflect certain values. 

“The meta-message is clearly that athletics takes priority in a lot of ways over the academic aspects of the school. How, when you see the quality of the facilities, could you not conclude that?” he asked. 

“Let me put it as diplomatically as I know how. I do not think that someone could defend (the exclusivity), if there were to be a public debate on the subject, in terms of any ideals that we would defend as being appropriate to a university.” 

But the Ducks keep claiming the Jock Box and Sweat Shop are good for all of the University of Nike, not just for themselves:

The lives of football players are exceptionally demanding and the players need the extra back-up to succeed, their coaches say. Plus, the football operations center lifts the whole university, Helfrich said in a recent interview.

UO student-journalist Craig Garcia has a rather different take, today in the Daily Emerald.

8/11/2013: Just kidding, UO President Mike Gottfredson is still keeping his head down. Maybe he’ll make some typically evasive remarks at this week’s leadership retreat, about these quotes in the NYT:

“People will complain, but this is not excessive,” said Rob Mullens, the university’s athletic director.

“We are the University of Nike,” said Jeff Hawkins, the senior associate athletic director of football administration and operations. “We embrace it. We tell that to our recruits.”

Keep me posted, we’ll want these for Gottfredson’s next secret performance evaluation. No, this is about a letter to the RG Editors from Senior Associate Athletic Director Jeff Hawkins, complaining about their recent news stories, which he’s posted it on the “GoDucks” website here.

Whoops, sorry, that’s the link to the secret deal Frohnmayer signed with Kilkenny, 2 weeks before stepping down, that makes the academic side pay $467K a year for the Matt Court land, cut the AD’s overhead in half to the tune of $555K a year, and requires Gottfredson to pay the jocks $400K a year to use the “President’s Box” at Autzen.

Hawkins’ attempt to blame the RG for taking his quote out of context is on goducks.com somewhere, try google. He’s angry because, after 3 full days, the RG still hasn’t published his letter. Maybe they’re waiting for Gottfredson, just like the faculty is still waiting for him to take action on the May resolution to end the athletic subsidies?
OK, here’s “The Hawk’s” letter from GoDucks.com. And get your t-shirts here, before Nike’s lawyers shut me down:

On August 8, 2013 at 11:43 A.M., Senior Associate Athletic Director Jeff Hawkins submitted a Letter to the Editor of The Register Guard regarding a quote attributed to him. 

The letter has yet to be published, despite the fact Mr. Hawkins appeared on the front page of The Register Guard three times in less than a week. There have been numerous letters published regarding the Hatfield-Dowlin Complex [or, as it’s known on campus, the Sweat shop] since its opening.

Per The Register Guard, “Because of the volume of mail, all letters cannot be published.” 

Here is the full text of Mr. Hawkins’ Letter to the Editor.

Dear Editor: 

A comment I made during a tour of the University of Oregon’s new Hatfield-Dowlin Football Complex has been taken out of context, and I feel I owe the members of my university and this community an explanation. 

When I said “We are the University of Nike,” I meant it as a metaphor for the shared ideals and passions that I believe exist between the UO athletic department and those of Nike, whose founder, Phil Knight, and his wife, Penny, have made extraordinary contributions to both academics and athletics at the UO. After all, the birthplace of Nike was on the playing fields of Oregon. The invention of the waffle track shoe by Oregon Coach Bill Bowerman revolutionized sports performance forever. Oregon student-athlete Phil Knight transformed those ideas into a sports-marketing empire. Both men exemplify the innovation and devotion to excellence that I associate with the UO. Both went on to become great philanthropists to the university and global game-changers. 

The Ducks are innovative and achievement oriented, driven to excellence. Students and student-athletes see us as ahead of the curve, smart, successful, cool, and fun. I see these characteristics as true not only of athletics, but of the university as a whole. 

I’ve been part of this great institution for almost 13 years, and I feel passionately about the UO. It’s my greatest hope that my 10-year old daughter will attend here someday. Rest assured, when she does, she will be coming for the UO’s outstanding academic programs. 

Jeff Hawkins
Senior Associate Athletic Director of Football Administration and Operations
University of Oregon

Nice bonus – we should have info on the latest admin and athletics raises in a few weeks.

Can Mike Andreasen keep his job?

By | |
6 Comments

6/6/2013: I’m all in favor of spending big bucks on fundraising. All the studies I’ve seen show it can pay off. But at UO most of the donations go to the jocks. I’m still waiting to see the Robin Jaqua gift letter, which may explain just how Duck athletic director Rob Mullens was able to roll Mike Andreasen and UO’s academic side for $5M. Meanwhile, this sort of thing does not build a lot of confidence in our team. Thanks to Anonymous for forwarding the email:

“I believe as an industry we are on the cusp of important new strides in building long-term sustainable international partnerships …”

Sent on behalf of Mike Andreasen

Advancement Colleagues:

I want to take this opportunity to share some of the early organizational changes that I have decided to make as we continue the transition to an Advancement model.   I look forward to sharing more details with you at one of our upcoming all staff meetings.  As we return to this model, we stand by our guiding principles:  a value of, and appreciation for, the many distinct programmatic responsibilities and expertise across the portfolios of University Relations and Development; a commitment to increasing our efficiencies and effectiveness as a unified unit; and our enthusiasm to take the very best of our previously Advancement structure and build upon it.

To that end I want to share with you some initial restructuring and a few personnel updates.

Tim Clevenger

I am pleased to announce that Tim has agreed to take on a new role in our Advancement organization as the Associate Vice President for Communications, Marketing and Brand Management.  In taking on the new role, Tim will lead, oversee and coordinate the university’s communications and branding efforts. He will work to consolidate and coordinate staff efforts across the Advancement team, and more comprehensively across campus.  Tim brings years of private sector experience in these fields and will lead our teams in this broad portfolio.  Additionally, while at the university he has developed an effective strategic and branding plan for the UOAA and as a member of the senior management team, he will continue to advance these important efforts.

Carole Daly

Carole has informed me of her decision to retire from the university in June 2014.  Carole has served the university with distinction and personal dedication and we look forward to properly celebrating and thanking her for her contributions to the UO.  In light of her decision, I am announcing the creation of a new senior leadership position that will combine components of Carole’s current role with the role of Executive Director of the UOAA.  As such, this new senior leader will be the AVP Annual & Regional Advancement and the Executive Director of the UOAA.  Tim and Carole will continue to serve in their current managerial roles until this position has been filled.

For the remainder of fiscal ’14, Carole will work directly with me and Vice President Thompson on developing a strategic fundraising plan for scholarships including a portfolio of leadership gifts in this area as part of the campaign.

AVP Annual & Regional Advancement/Executive Director of the UOAA

This new position will lead us through a very innovative and entrepreneurial approach to serve our donors and alumni.  This position will coordinate our approach to annual giving, alumni memberships, regional engagement including gifts, alumni chapters and will oversee a new alumni membership services model for the UOAA.  This model will provide a strategic opportunity to approach our prospect, donor, and alumni base with a more comprehensive overview of methods to engage with the university.  I look forward to sharing more of my thoughts and expectations of this new collaboration between the Development and UOAA teams, and to working with our colleagues in both areas as we further develop our strategies for this new exciting area.

John Manotti

After years of service in our central Development office and most recently as our AVP for Principal Gifts, I am very pleased to share with you that John has agreed to lead a very important new initiative for us.  In his new role of AVP for International Advancement, John will bring his in-depth knowledge of the campus; his years of successful fundraising, domestically and abroad; his commitment to our alumni and donors; and his positive energetic approach to one our most promising new efforts.  I believe as an industry we are on the cusp of important new strides in building long-term sustainable international partnerships with our alumni, parents, corporate partners, and sovereign nations.  While philanthropy and financial investment are often our most tangible measure of success, I am convinced that the broader Advancement effort is a more accurate view of our international opportunities and I couldn’t be more encouraged by John’s willingness to take on this challenge.  Working closely with the Vice Provost for International Affairs, John will work across campus and around the world to foster these new relationships and partnerships.

Paul Elstone

As part of our restructuring efforts and in response to several of the changes above, I have asked Paul to expand his management and oversight portfolio.  Paul will be elevated to Associate Vice President and the fundraising areas in the Museum for Natural & Cultural History, the Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Bach Festival, and the Office of Gift Planning will be added to his portfolio.  I want to acknowledge Paul for the leadership he has provided over the past three years and thank him for his willingness to take on this expanded role. In addition, Paul will work with colleagues across University Development to continue to improve the coordination of all major gift activity.

Best,

Mike Andreasen

Vice President, Advancement

University of Oregon

NCAA academic reforms go bad

By | | Uncategorized
2 Comments

If there’s one thing the jocks understand it’s how to take the rules and run with them. Today’s excellent story in Inside Higher Ed, by Gerald Gurney and Richard M. Southall, dissects the 2003 NCAA academic reforms – pushed by former UO Pres Myles Brand – and shows how they have been subverted by athletic departments and cooperative central administrators:

Presidents of Division I universities, with the assistance of their athletics programs and some faculty enamored with athletics, knowingly accept watered-down curriculums for specially admitted underprepared athletes as the price of big-time college sport. They willingly leverage loose admissions standards with special exceptions reserved for athletes, massive remedial programs and less rigorous academic majors to maintain or achieve winning programs to keep their donors and regents pleased and proud. The promise of a world-class education and opportunity is a great hoax.

Read it all, reflect on how much of this is happening at UO, and think about what we can do about it, here, soon. Let’s start with having President Gottfredson giving the faculty access to the data on academic performance which the Senate unanimously asked him to provide by last month. 2/14/13.

Ducks cash in on lottery bucks, but Beavs do better

By | | Uncategorized
Comments Off on Ducks cash in on lottery bucks, but Beavs do better

The lottery subsidies to the athletics department are for 2009-2011, a holdover from some long-forgotten failed scheme to allow lottery gambling on college football games. Kitzhaber’s budget takes the money away from OUS and gives it to educational purposes:

More from the remarkably transparent, and appropriately garish Oregon Lottery site, here:

OSU is even on the jock money, and way ahead on getting cash for their academic side. And they even let regular students use their “Student Success Center”, while regular UO students in the Jock Box ain’t gonna happen – even though Bean makes them pay all of the $1.83M a year for the athlete-only tutoring costs.

University cuts scholarships to buy out coach

By | | Uncategorized
Comments Off on University cuts scholarships to buy out coach

at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville:

After Tennessee fired its coach last week, the university’s chancellor said the athletic department would forgo $18 million in contributions it was to make to the university over the next three years for academic scholarships and fellowship programs.
Instead, some of the money will be used to pay the severance packages of the coach, Derek Dooley, who is owed $5 million, and his staff, which is owed a reported $4 million if it is not retained. Dooley had four years remaining on his contract.

Wait – their AD was giving $6 million a year to the academic side? That’s about what Rob Mullens *takes* from UO’s academic side. 12/1/2012.

Chip Kelly to leave UO for Eagles, Mullens to pay off overhead bill.

By | | Uncategorized
2 Comments

12/1/2012: That’s the rumor from the coaches’ hot tub. If true, Kelly’s contract requires him to pay UO $2.5 million. VPFA Jamie Moffitt will make sure this goes directly to the academic side, to cover the AD’s 3 years of overhead underpayments, and reimburse our students for half this year’s Jock Box costs. Right, Jamie?

If Kelly leaves soon enough, he might even avoid having Rob Mullens dock his pay for the costs we’ve had to pay for the Willie Lyles investigation, and any NCAA fines:

UO needs a new Provost

By | | Uncategorized
11 Comments

Read Interim Provost Jim Bean’s 2010 op-ed in the Oregonian, defending the decision to spend $1.83 million a year of regular students’s tuition money on the athlete only Jacqua Center for Student Athletes – or as the NY Times calls it, the Jock Box. Then read about how Duck AD Rob Mullens was allowed to use all the earnings from a $5 million donation to UO to replace the tiny bit the athletic department was paying – nothing toward the academic side’s costs.

Then read today’s Register Guard story on the crunch in classroom space for regular UO students. I’m no economist, but the $1.83 million per year the students are paying the athletic department would have financed a $35,599,612.29 classroom building, with 30 year tax exempt bonds at 3.125%.

UO needs a new provost. 8/12/2012.

Update: In the comments, The Dog analyzes Chris Ramey’s statement in the article:

However, over the past two decades, spending on academic buildings and sports facilities — not counting housing and other student-focused buildings — has been roughly equal, according to Ramey’s analysis, although it doesn’t include the football operations center that’s under construction. 

I don’t see how Ramey’s math works here either – and even if it does, is it really OK that 50% of all new construction over the past 20 years has been for the jocks? Amazing. UO needs to tax contributions to the Ducks.

Millions for jocks, not a cent for scholars

By | |
3 Comments

1/18/2012: That’s the word on the $5 million Jock Box gift from John Jaqua’s widow. Greg Bolt explains the basics, here. Duck press release here. And now Rob Mullens has admitted that he is going to use all the proceeds to cover the small part of the maintenance and utilities that the athletic department must pay. Not a cent will go to help the academic side pay for the $1.83 million cost of running the athlete-only tutoring operations. Where was UO’s VP for Development Mike Andreasenwhile this gift was being negotiated? Not doing his job for the academic side. Where was UO Foundation President Paul Weinhold? Cashing his paycheck. What is the probability that the widowed 91-year-old donor, the generous and rather interesting Robin Jaqua, understood how UO’s athletic department would use her gift? ____%. Meanwhile, the athletic department is continuing to play hardball with the students over football tickets and costs. Because they are that greedy. Emily Schiola has the story in the ODE.

$5 million Jock Box endowment

By | | Uncategorized
4 Comments

1/17/2012: Looks like B-School prof Dennis Howard is right about how athletic success increases athletic donations, not academic ones. The Rose Bowl win is paying off – for the athletic department. Colton Totland is reporting in the ODE that Robin Jaqua is establishing a $5 million endowment to help pay for the operating costs of the Jock Box. Under UO foundation rules this will produce about $200,000 a year. The latest data on the costs was reported by Greg Bolt in the RG back in May. UO spends about $4,000 in tutoring costs per athlete, versus about $225 for regular students. Regular students foot the bill for the athletes – about $1.83 million a year, total. Why do regular students have to pay for a building they can’t use? Ask Jim Bean, it makes perfect sense to him.

We gave the athletic department the land free, and the only thing they pay for is 2/3 of the operating costs of the building – maintenance and utilities. This endowment is just enough to cover those, so the cost to the academic side will be unchanged. Or maybe some of this money will actually be used to offset what the regular students must pay for the athlete’s tutoring. We’ll see.

Who pays for new Jock Box floor?

By | | Uncategorized
4 Comments

12/20/2011: Sam Stites of the ODE asks – and gets some answers. Mostly the state self-insurance fund. Meaning money that could have been used for the many pressing needs of state government. Instead, taxpayers will pay $121,647, including $45,460 for engraving the athlete’s names. You’ve got to admire the shamelessness of people who would put in a claim to the state for this egofice. Nothing more fun than spending other people’s money:

Both Bob Beals and Steve Stolp declined to comment on the insurance policy despite being listed as contacts on the insurance claim report.

And of course there’s the ~$2 million per year in regular student tuition that goes to fund the athlete-only tutoring and other expenses for our “self-supporting” athletics department. Phil Knight’s Jock Box: the gift that keeps on taking.

Academic side pays Jock Box electricity bill

By | |
1 Comment

11/3/2011: I’m not exactly shocked to learn that the Jaqua Center glass box burns through electricity like a Norwegian Casino. But it is rather surprising to discover that the academic side of UO – meaning tuition money, mostly – pays the electric bill. The athletic department sticks us with a bunch of other maintenance costs as well, totaling about $160,000 a year:

Sure, we’ll take out your trash, Mr. Mullens. And, of course, as we learned from the Register Guard earlier this year, general fund money also pays for the athlete only tutoring operation itelf – about $1.8 million, last time I looked. Let’s round it to a $2 million subsidy. Here is a summary of the previous stories:

5/8/2011: Greg Bolt has dual front page stories on the UO administration’s complicity in subsidizing UO athletics with state tax revenue and regular student tuition, in today’s Register Guard. The first compares the dismal support services for regular students with what the athletes get at what the NY Times calls UO’s “Jock Box”:

The agreement requires the UO to run the Jaqua Center “at the leading edge of academic excellence” by substantially increasing staff and services. The cost of providing those services comes from the UO’s academic budget, not from the athletic department. It comes to almost $2 million a year, which works out to about $4,000 per student-athlete. … (vs. about $225 a year for regular students.)

Bolt’s second story points out it’s the regular students who pay for the athletes-only Jock Box extravaganza:

At the University of Oregon, the cost is borne by the UO’s overall academic budget. It’s not part of the athletics department’s budget.

The weird part is that, given how his gift letter reads, I think Phil Knight expected the athletic department would pay for this – but then they realized they could trick our Provost, and keep the money for their own salaries. So get that dumb jock stereotype out of your head. We are the fools here.

Scholarships: $6 million for academics, $9 million for athletics

By | | Uncategorized
Comments Off on Scholarships: $6 million for academics, $9 million for athletics

10/20/2011: Institutional Research reports that last year the UO Foundation spent ~$6 million on Academic, merit, and need scholarships.

Puts that $3.2 million overhead subsidy for athletics into perspective. Oh yeah, the Foundation spent almost $9 million on athletic scholarships. And of course the athletic department spent $2 million of general funds on the Jock Box tutoring. Athletes only.