Question A

Regarding the athletics panel discussion upcoming, I have looked for and failed to find a Mission Statement for the UO Athletics Program (especially the intercollegiate one). Do you know of one that has been approved by the Athletics Dept. and by the UO? If there is not one, I think it would be an interesting and useful exercise for someone to write one (the Presidential Task Force on Athletics?). The statement should show how the program works to achieve some of the broad goals stated in the UO's Mission Statement.

Question B

Last Sunday in the New York Times sports section there appeared an op-ed column by a provost from LSU. The occasion was of course the Sugar Bowl, in which LSU was playing for the BCS footbal championship. The LSU administrator used this platform to boast of the university's growth, new programs, rising student academic indicators, and rising faculty salaries. I know from other sources that the English dept. at LSU will be hiring for 16 new positions over the next few years. If the U of Oregon is so eager to compete at the highest levels of athletiics, why is there no effort to compete for the best faculty and students? Why are faculty salaries falling even farther behind our peers?

What are the conditions that would allow an athletics program directly to benefit academics as seems to be the case at LSU.

Question C

• (1) What position is the administration taking on joining the coalition?
• (2) What position is the athletic department taking on joining the coalition?
• (3) What position is the administration taking on implementing the recommendations that are eventually adopted as outcome of the Framework for Comprehensive Athletics Reform (regardless of whether we join the coalition or not)?
• (4) What position is the athletic department taking on implementing the recommendations that are eventually adopted as outcome of the Framework for Comprehensive Athletics Reform (regardless of whether we join the coalition or not)?
• (5) Has the administration consulted with other PAC 10 administrations relative to joining the coalition and is there a consensus among the PAC 10 schools?
• (6) What exactly does joining the coalition commit the UO to?

I am concerned an issue under the category of athlete welfare, specifically, the termination of athletic scholarships when the student athlete is no longer sufficiently useful to the team. This is allowed under NCAA rules as long as the termination comes at the end of the academic year. A related concern is that we do not clearly state in our recruitment letter that the athletic scholarship is for one year only, with renewal for subsequent years at the discretion of the coach.

Probably the best solution, at least from the point of the view of the athletes, would be to make athletic scholarships renewable for four years as long as the athlete satisfies suitable conditions. This is addressed in the Framework for Comprehensive Athletics Reform:

Scholarship support should never be terminated for a student who has demonstrated effort in athletics, who wishes to continue in athletics, and who has met standards of academic and personal conduct. Lengthening the term of athletes' scholarships should be explored.

In order to make the first sentence meaningful, of course, the term of scholarships would have to be four years (or maybe five). Alternatively, we could at least be more up-front in our recruitment letter about scholarships potentially disappearing after an injury or too many dropped passes.

Question E

• 1) Do student athletes often report instances where they felt they were treated differently (either positively or negatively) by their professors? What is the response in these cases?
•  2) Under what circumstances could a student athlete's scholarship be terminated?
•  3) How does the size of our Athletic Department's budget compare in size to that of other Division IA schools?

•  (with respect to the framework document)
• 1) which proposals can be implemented NOW at the local level (i.e. proposals that don't require outside approval or coordination with other institutions), and
• 2) what are possible road maps for implementing each of these proposals in a meaningful way?
•  3) which proposals can be implemented NOW, or begin to be implemented in the near future, at the regional level (namely, the Pac-10 Conference) and the national evel (namely, the NCAA)?, and
• 4) what are possible road maps for implementing each of these proposals in a meaningful way?
• (with respect to reform)
• 5) How can the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee better serve to monitor, shape, and approve athletic policies so the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics reflects not its will and self-image (and/or that of its corporate sponsors/donors), but that of the University of Oregon as a whole?
• 6) How will the University, through the Senate, University administrators and the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee evaluate the progress of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and the University's own administration in the implementation of reforms? In other words, what is our institution's road map for making sure that proposals are turned into reality?

1. Has the university's legal counsel eviewed the possibility of the UO joining the COIA?  If yes, what, if any, recommendation or comments has she made.
2.  Has anyone ever done a study, or could a study be done, of the net benefits the intercollegiate athletics program brings to the University of Oregon? Of course, this is an extremely complicated question. To avoid murkier waters, let's just consider the net financial benefits. Already this is very complicated, and hard to quantify, since it includes such questions as what effect the program has on donations to the university that are used for academic purposes, what effect it has on student recruitment and retention, etc., as well as the net expenses (costs minus ticket revenue, athletic donations, tuition paid by athletes, etc.)
3. Can we take steps to give the faculty senate complete access to Athletic Department budgetary information: income, expenses, transactions, public and private funds--the full books?
4. With consultation among other institutions that have followed this course, can we take steps to establish a regular contribution by the Athletic Department to the Office of Academic Affairs, to support the educational mission of what is still primarily an educational institution? In asking this, I hope that those pursuing the issue will consider a number of options in setting an appropriate level for this contribution, both in terms of specific dollar amounts and sums determined by the total level of financial activity in the Athletic Department (such as 1% of all net annual income).