editorial
AD wants more than
students can afford
ASUO President Julie Davis must be commended for her
veto Thursday of the Incidental Fee Committee’s 1985-86
Athletic Department allocation. Davis’ veto came in
response to the IFC’s decision to allocate about $653,000 in
incidental fees to the AD for the upcoming year. (This total
excludes the IFC’s $120,000 annual ticket subsidy that goes
to the AD). Davis, who was last year’s IFC chair, is concern
ed that the AD regards Unversity students as an inexhausti
ble resource that can be tapped for annual fee increases —
this year’s allocation is an increase of about $50,000 above
last year’s $602,000 allocation.
Since 1978, the AD under three different athletic direc
tors — John Caine, Rick Bay and Bill Byrne — has con
sistently requested fee increases that hovered between 10
and 25 percent. The largest request was made in 1979-80
when the AD requested a 75 percent increase for the ensuing
year.
Throughout this seven-year period, Athletic Depart
ment representatives have argued that if given their request,
they would be able to stabilize the department’s budget.
This, they have said, would allow them to forego a similar
allocation increase in the following year. Instead, they have
continued year after year to request increased fee support
through the use of this same argument.
Students are at a distinct disadvantage in the budget
process. Unlike AD administrators who maintain their posts
from year to year, student representatives change annually.
As the result, the AD has a better understanding of the
overall process and better expertise in dealing with the
department’s massive budget. This was highlighted during
the AD’s recent IFC budget hearings. Committee members
had a difficult time conceptualizing the various line items
within the AD’s budget. And because of other school-related
commitments, IFC members were not as well prepared as
Athletic Department representatives when it came time to
discuss the budget.
Granted, Byrne’s department is struggling for money. It
is extremely difficult for the University’s sports program to
compete with other Pacific 10 programs. Stanford, Cal and
the University of Washington all receive generous support
from their alumni. In addition, other conference schools get
a great deal of money from their state legislatures and
through ticket sales. But the University sports program suf
fers on all three accounts.
The Oregon Legislature does not contribute any funds to
the University’s sports program. And ticket revenues have
proved to be an unstable source of funding for the AD as
ticket sales are dependent upon both the weather and the in
dividual teams’ win-loss records. Alumni contributions are
also an unstable source of money as they vary with the
strength of the Oregon economy.
But the department’s administration must learn that it
cannot depend on students to annually fill a revenue gap.
Every University student presently pays $16 each term to the
AD. And most of these 15,000 students rarely attend any
University sports events.
Yes, a solid NCAA sports program does add prestige to
the University’s national reputation. And yes, sports teams
do help the University’s administration sell our campus to
future college students.
But how much more can University students, who are
also financially strapped, be expected to subsidize a sports
program for an elite few?
Rather than asking students for a greater financial con
tribution, Byrne should turn to other sources of funding. It is
time that the AD realizes that most University students find
$16 per term a high price to pay for something they never
use.
letters
Tradition
Mr. Dan Goulet: My amuse
ment at the feeble ideas and
childish writing style in your
letter of May 1 was necessarily
tempered by my revulsion and
anger at the values embodied
therein.
Proceeding from the former to
the latter:
The fact that one out of 15
students voted, and that they
elected SPA candidates, surely
does not suggest (even tongue
in-cheek) that apathy is dead at
the University, but it does sug
gest that those who care enough
to vote chose to vote for those
who care enough to govern
equitably.
“Tradition” has nothing to
do with maintenance of the
status quo; please consult your
dictionary.
Patterns of behavior are not
necessarily right, simply
because they have stood for
years.
Nobody in the SPA has
publicly suggested that our
great, noble and free country is
politically or morally inferior to
the Soviet Union.
However, it might be instruc
tive to recall the measures that
produced our current levels of
production. How wealthy
would white America be if four
fifths of American soil still
belonged to native Americans?
I will not address the Central
America vs. South Africa ques
tion. I honestly find it impossi
ble to believe that you could ac
tually support the policies of
apartheid.
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But if you find “brother love,
global progress and universal
prosperity," (you forgot world
peace) to be merely “a sticky
puddle of stale bromides," then
1 hope you get yourself un-stuck
and soon.
For a world that cherishes
those values can scarcely ac
commodate your sort.
Paul Dent
Architecture
New laws
We need more equality, not
only between men and women,
but also between gays and
straights. For example,
heterosexual women sometimes
get pregnant.
They are then granted the
freedom of choice whether or
not to have an abortion. It is her
right to do with her own body as
she pleases.
On the other hand, homosex
ual men sometimes get AIDS.
They would then like to have
the freedom of choice whether
or not to give blood. But our
laws prohibit him from doing
what he wants with his own
body.
We should change the laws so
that men and women, gays and
straights can work equally at
reducing the surplus
population.
Earl Gosnell
Didn’t know
I was not aware I was being
"duped by Marxist elements."
I did not realize the speakers
at the anti-apartheid rally, in
cluding Ken Kesey and Paul
Olum, were "passing on Soviet
propaganda.”
I thought I was protesting in
order to show Reagan (who
never pays attention to reason),
or perhaps the South African
government (that will never
change until bloody revolution
comes), that I am defiled by the
present condonation of racism
and apartheid.
Thank you Tonie Nathan for
opening my eyes.
Robin Stalcup
That’s all
What’s this Bonn, Bergen
Belsen, Bitburg brou-ha-ha all
about anyway? Did not Presi
dent Reagan go to Germany to
make reconciliation for the
wounds of World War 11? How
does that work?
Common,1 ordinary German
soldiers bombed, strafed,
torpedoed, machine gunned,
shot and otherwise killed
millions of soldiers and
civilians in Albania, Algeria,
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria.
Czechoslovakia. England.
Finland, France. Greece,
Hungary, Italy, Libya, Luxem
burg, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Rumania, Russia,
Spain, Tunisia, Yugoslavia
(give or take a few countries)
and their own country.
1 think it’s okay to forgive
them and forget their deeds.
But, what about the S.S.
troops who picked on the Jews
and other “undesirables?"
Can they be forgiven and their
atrocities forgotten?
I understand that an inor
dinate number of Jewish people
were persecuted and killed. But
they were not the only vicitms
of German aggression, nor were
they the largest group of one
race or nationality who died. I
believe the Russian people lost
more.
Perhaps it is a vocal minority
that now calls for special atten
tion because they were selected
for special persecution.
I feel that an overture of
reconciliation must be all
encompassing, otherwise we
would be guilty of singling out
a special group for hatred, as
did the Nazis.
In the eyes of Jehovah, there
is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither bond nor free, there is
neither male nor female. We all
need forgiveness.
David Goss
Elementary Education
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