Oregon U students push back on fees to support athletics

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econalum
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Oregon U students push back on fees to support athletics

Post by econalum » Mon Feb 22, 2021 2:56 pm

Since UMass has one the largest student fee-supported athletic budgets in D1, I thought that this article was interesting.

https://tinyurl.com/35tc58b6
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Re: Oregon U students push back on fees to support athletics

Post by e_parade » Mon Feb 22, 2021 3:35 pm

I mean it makes sense. They even point out in the article that not every student can even get a ticket to football games because of how popular they are, and they're still charging every student a fee equivalent to all of them going to all of the games. The arguments against it are also strange "they'd miss out on sports..." - did they not consider any other scenarios other than 100% and 0%?

Let them opt in or out of paying the fee for sports. If they opt out, then if they want to attend the games, they need to buy the tickets like everyone else. If they opt in, then they can get the "free" student tickets.

Let them opt into a smaller number of games. Maybe they want to go to 3 home games instead of 6. Let them do that, use their student account/card to track when they've entered the games. Cut them off and make them buy the tickets after that.


Obviously wouldn't end well for most universities (ours included) in terms of funding, but surely a major player like Oregon can afford that.

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Re: Oregon U students push back on fees to support athletics

Post by Floyd » Mon Feb 22, 2021 4:46 pm

Plus the expense of monitoring "who's in, who's out" and individualizing each student would be impracticle I would think
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Re: Oregon U students push back on fees to support athletics

Post by McKinney » Mon Feb 22, 2021 5:04 pm

I'm not sure what the financial implications would be, but shouldn't room & board consider the costs of student life? (including athletics)

If you were to live off-campus you're essentially opting out of certain amenities in favor of potentially lower cost of attendance. Off-campus students could of course purchase season tickets, just as they can purchase commuter meal plans.

I think the state has an obligation to ensure its students have access to affordable and quality education. I also think they should ensure there are affordable living options. But if some students want to ball out on room & board, why stand in their way?

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Re: Oregon U students push back on fees to support athletics

Post by KahunaK » Mon Feb 22, 2021 5:46 pm

econalum wrote: Mon Feb 22, 2021 2:56 pm Since UMass has one the largest student fee-supported athletic budgets in D1, I thought that this article was interesting.

https://tinyurl.com/35tc58b6
This could catch on (especially at places like UMASS) at public institutions where the socio-economic profile of students is different than the private schools. Students can easily say- our sports programs suck, I don't go to the games, I'm here for an education and not to attend sporting events, etc. This may lead to a reevaluation of the salaries of coaches etc. The Herald loves to show that the two top salaries in the state are our fb and bb coaches. Also since many of the sports programs are "independent" 501(c)'s they may just have to go it alone if the students really decide they don't want to pay for the sports programs. TV money which already dominates decisions will probably become even more important. Could be interesting if this trend continues. If it can happen at a Pac 12 school, it can happen at most universities.

The obvious reaction by schools will be to eliminate the sports fee and just increase tuition.

When I was on the AA board, I know that the AA kicked in money to the sports programs and received tix in return. This actually got contentious when the AA cut back. Not sure how it eventually turned out. The AA is a mess- glad they finally fired the director.

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