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Senate OK’s budget hike for Athletic Department
■ A 5 percent raise was set
despite the original request
By Emily Gust
Oregon Daily Emerald
Compared to last week’s debate
over the EMU’s budget, which last
ed longer than an hour, it took the
ASUO Student Senate less than 10
minutes to present and vote on
next year’s budget for the Athletic
Department Finance Committee.
In the past few weeks, the ADFC
reported a possible stalemate be
tween itself and the Athletic De
partment. The department wanted
a 12 percent increase in its student
incidental fee funding. The senate,
however, approved a 5 percent in
crease last fall, as recommended by
ADFC senators.
In the end, the senate granted the
ADFC $1,092,672, which is
$52,032 more than its budget this
year — exactly the 5 percent ap
proved in the fall.
“We haven’t given the Athletic
Department an increase since 1996
or 1997,” said Sen. Greg Zimel,
who sits on the ADFC. “Mean
while, their price of tickets has sky
rocketed.”
Senate President Peter Watts ex
plained that the “good-faith agree
ment” between the Athletic Depart
ment and the ADFC was that
students pay 50 percent of the “fair
market value” of athletic tickets.
Right now, he said, they are paying
less than 40 percent.
“We can’t maintain 0 percent in
creases when ticket prices are going
up,” Watts said.
The ADFC made another “good
faith agreement” with the depart
ment to continue increasing its
budget substantially throughout
the next few years until students
are paying 50 percent of ticket val
ues.
Negotiations are ongoing over
whether the department will
charge for two pre-season games
before school begins in the fall —
games that are not currently fund
ed by the incidental fee.
In other business, it was a night
of returned visitors as two groups
that tried and failed in the past fi
nally left the senate with their spe
cial requests granted.
The Student Bar Association
came before the senate a few weeks
ago to ask for $9,232 to help initiate
a law school yearbook. The senate
granted the request — less $1,500
from the original amount — but
Turn to Senate, page 5A
Candidates
continued from page 1A
percent increase, so lobbying
around that, getting support
throughout Oregon is very impor
tant to us.
[Nilda] I feel like when educa
tion is attacked in little ways, it af
fects all students and all educa
tion. So making sure there’s not
just a focus on U of O for U of O,
that we work on a statewide level
to make sure all education is ac
cessible.
Q: What is your definition of
student activism?
A: The ability to challenge those
around you to question your own
reality and the reality that is pre
sented to you by the faculty, by the
media, by all other facets that cre
ate the U of O experience. I think
having fun, too. This is the time
that I’m not responsible for anyone
else but myself, so being able to
challenge myself and those around
me is a really unique and privi
leged experience.
Q: How do you define diversity,
and how do you plan to bring to
gether the diverse voices on cam
pus?
A: [Joy] Being a student of color,
that’s automatically the first thing
I would think about. But that was
actually what I thought about be
fore I came to the University. Now
that I’m here, it’s different
thoughts, it’s different ideas. For
us, it’s building coalitions with dif
ferent student groups and different
voices.
[Nilda] Both of us are in a
unique opportunity simply be
cause we were both volunteers
and interns with the ASUO diver
sity team, and now as staff mem
bers, almost every single job I do
includes five different people who
work at five different offices. So
just continuing those coalitions
that are already built. And there’s
real specific plans that have been
brought out for the last 10 years by
the administration — actual blue
prints of how we can diversify this
campus — and unfortunately,
there seems to be this committee
process of “let’s recreate a plan
that has already been created,” so
my goal is to make sure things
aren’t bogged down in committee
processes; spending more student
time holding the administration
accountable for things they said
they were going to do five years
ago —10 years ago.
Q: If student groups were at
odds with each other, how would
you resolve the conflict?
A: One of the big reasons stu
dent groups get into conflicts is
there are real barriers of communi
cation. For instance, I wouldn’t
say there’s a lot of communication
between an office like Greek Life
and an office like the ASUO. Un
fortunately, lots of times, student
groups get into this feeling that
they are a separate, autonomous
organization outside the spectrum
of being a student group. Things
like program council meetings,
which were originally set up to
make sure those lines of communi
cation were always open, are not
really working. It’s the ASUO’s job
to branch places where those natu
ral bridges aren’t naturally created.
So it would be our job to make
sure that Greek Life and the Black
Student Union know who each
other are.
Q: If there was one thing you
could change about the University
instantly, what would it be?
A: [Nilda] I think I would intro
duce a lot more administrators to
the average student and have them
spend a day with an average stu
dent going through their routine. I
feel like there’s such distance be
tween administrative decisions
that affect the average student on a
daily basis and the actuality of
what it means to be a U of O stu
dent — like the logistics and the
nitty-gritty of a day of being an U
of O student. I would just like to
bring them out of a sheltered realm
of administrative offices — this is
what my class schedule looks like,
this is how much 1 work to pay tu
ition, this is how late I stay up to
do homework.
Q: Recent history shows a tense
relationship between the ASUO
Executive and University Presi
dent Dave Frohnmayer. Do you
plan on improving that relation
ship and, if so, how?
A: I have met Dave Frohnmayer
once, and he’s actually very nice. I
think tensions are there because
both sides have dug their heels in
and have decided, “This is as far
as I’m going to move.” I think we
have a right to be somewhat frus
trated with him. But I also see
Dave Frohnmayer often times be
ing labeled as somebody who can
change something that’s not really
in his control. I would like to work
with him on things he can change,
the things we can change together.
President Frohnmayer does not
control our tuition at all. But the
average student might not know
that, so educating students about
what President Frohnmayer can
and can’t do for us, and then work
ing on the things he can do.
Q: How would you do things
differently than current President
Jay Breslow and Vice President
Holly Magner?
A: I think there’s a different
sense of leadership style between
the tw7o of us. It’s kind of interest
ing because we’re on his staff. One
thing that I totally admire that he
did do was he hired an incredible
staff and gave them a lot of inde
pendence to do incredible cam
paigns. I would like to repeat his
amazing hires.