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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1971)
Editors not?: The following article is the first of a tfcrw part series on the expenditure of incidental for monry on a thirties in Lhr University . Last year 20 per cent of the ASUO incidental fee budget was spent an sports programs, supposedly for the benefit of students Where this money is spent should be of vital By I AIN MORE J- or the Emerald interest Unfortunately, not enough students have critically analyzed what their money was being spent for. and as a result, practices and policies that do not reflect the students' interests have been im plemented and continued without being challenged The purpose of this series is to begin the examination necessary to thoughtful judgment on the expenditure of so much of the students funds There are five main sports programs at the University: The Athletic Department, the Club Sports Program, the Womens Recreation Association, the In termural Program and the Outdoor Program An evaluation of these programs and their level of funding will show the sorts of imbalances that exist, and what kinds of alternatives there are for correcting them The Athletic Department at the present time takes approximately 86 per cent of the $257,000 that the ASUO gives to the five campus sports programs This year, the Athletic Department is requesting what amounts to an eighty per cent increase over the $211,000 they received last year, for a grand total budget request of $375,000 No other sports program has made such a request for increased funding in years Athletics • . • What are we always paying money for? It is not difficult to understand the reasons behind the request The costs of intercollegiate athletics has increased in the nation by more than 100 per cent over the past ten years And. while costs are going up and up. a Gallup Poll taken this year shows a serious decline in in terest in such programs “Of the students surveyed, 43 per cent felt that student concern over intercollegiate athletics was definitely on the wane More im port ant than these figures is the fact that while during the past twenty years student enrollment in colleges and universities has increased more than eighty per cent, there has been only an eighteen per cent increase in collegiate football attendance For example, in 1948, 83 per cent of the undergraduates at the University of Southern California attended football games, but by 1962, only 51 per cent did so An indication of the things to come in the use of student fee money for support of intercollegiate athletics came this year at the University of California at Berkeley The students cut off the compulsory fee to the athletic department there, and reallocated the $310,000 total "in a manner more broadly represen tative of student needs ” And the wind? of change are blowing nationwide The University of Buffalo has recently dropped its football program because of the heavy expense and a growing lack of student interest The Universities of Chicago and Denver have dropped intercollegiate athletics altogether The clearest sign for the future is the consistent trend on new campuses to not even begin intercollegiate programs But if attendence us down while costs an* up. and schools an* either dnipping or refusing to start such programs because they serve less and less the serious needs of students, why is it that so many athletic departments an* still in operationThe answer is that in one important sense, athletics at the college level is a big business And students have for years been stockholders in the firm, although they don't often get a voice in the direction the business is taking The University's Athletic Department is a clear example of this relationship The students, thmugh their contnbutions in in cidental fees. are major stock holders And as this is the case, it is interesting to examine the depart ment on a cost benefit hasis In the first place, the students have for years been the consistent suppliers of new capital for what is a speculative venture The amount of money the department receives from alumni donors fluctuates widely from year to year In 19*5-66. alumni contributed 1*5,000 In 19*7 0*. it went up to $1*5,000, and dropped last year to $130,000 Student support on the either hand, has increased every year from 19*4 when the investment was $162,000, to i960 70 w hen the students chipped in $258,000 Thus, the important question of the return on the students' large investment should tie an important one what have we gotten'1 This us certainly difficult to evaluate, mil it is clear that Students have not come away the big winners Those who really gain are the highly paid professional players, for whom the students maintain a farm club system, the general public, which demands this sort of entertainment, and the televisual networks, which make large profits selling com morcials sandwiched in between plays And if this is the case, why do the students continue to make mereased contributions of capital to the Athletic Department’ The answer, in the main, is tin fact that students have little or no control over how the Athletic Department spends its money, and the goals the Athletic Department is trying to reach Tomorow The Athletic Depart ment and the Nl’AA, Autien Stadium, and alternative methods of funding Penn mentor to replace Belko as basketball coach Sieve Belko tin- University's durable and sometimes eonlroversi.il basketball coach has announced his retirement from coaching University Athletic Director Norv Ritchey said Tuesday that Belko will step down as head basketball coach to assume duties as an assistant athletic director at the University Dick Harter, head coach at the University of Pennsylvania, and rated one of the top young coaches in the country, was named to succeed Belko late Tuesday afternoon Harter has coached for si* years, five at Penn, and owns a 104 S3 overall record His last two teams have sustained 2S 2 and 28 1 records, were Ivy league champions, and NCAA regional finalists Belko w ho has been coaching for 21 yean. IS at Oregon, owns a 179 211 record at the University, including two teams which he took to the NCAA playoffs <1959-60 and 1960-6H His teams have pasted identical 17 9 records the last two yean, finishing third and fourth respec tively in the rugged Pack conference Belko serving as first vice president of the National Basketball Coaches Association, is currently attending the convention of that group in Springfield. Mass and was unavailable for com ment Harter will be bringing two of his assistant coaches at Penn with him Dick Stewart and Ray Kdrlman apparently will both hold assistant coaching positions at the University Harter's appointment and the inclusion of two assistant coaches in the package brought ira mediate comment from ASUO president Hon Kachus ‘ This is exactly the way students get trapp**d into continually funding the Athletic Department at a disproportionate level with other departments,” Kachus said "At the same time we are asked to set guidelines for change and make consistent con tracts, they (the Athletic Department) make contracts increasing their staff and committments without consulting us ‘ The inc rease's are obvious, at least there's an increase* of one staff member with keeping Helko and hiring a new coach that means an additional staff salary If we find out that the new coach is getting a greater salary and he's bringing in other assistants, that means far greater increases.'' Contacted at his home Tuesday night. Athietic Director Ritchey expressed surprise at Kachus’ charges •‘I would like to express surprise and dismay at Hon s statements I’ve constantly emphasized that the prime reason that we as an athletic department and inter collegiate athletics, exist, is for the benefit of ail students and the general University community " While Ritchey declined to discuss specific provisions in the department budget which would allow for new hirings, he did indicate full disclosure would be made next week when the athlrtic department's budget goes before the ASUO Fiscal Committee for a complete hearing See related slartes mm f* ge 14. IMrk llirtrr Sieve tlelkn Student union slates peace week activities H> NAN IIKNDFKSON Ol the Kmrrsld Plans for a "massive peace rally involving a* many and war group* a» possible" were finalized at a Tuesday night meeting of thr Student Union The rally is scheduled for Friday, April 23 at 8 p m in 13* Com monwealth A dance on 13th Ave will follow the rally 'The purpoae of the rally is to explain the strategy for all of the spring anti war activities, especially those revolving around May Day and in support of the People’s Peace Treaty," explained Steve Thomasburger. one of the rally coordinators *’We hope that at least MO people will attend," he added Continued on Page i
