Originally published on February 24, 2021 7:15 pm
The University of Oregon Senate a governance body made up of faculty, students and others in the university community voted Wednesday to support the student government’s recent decision to discontinue an agreement with the UO Athletics Department, which required students to pay a fee to receive tickets to sporting events.
In its resolution, the Senate also opposed a proposed plan from the Athletics Department to create a new mandatory student fee for game tickets, though that plan could still be greenlit by the university’s Board of Trustees next month.
The Associated Students of the University of Oregon, or ASUO, earlier this year voted to discontinue its more than $1.7 million student tickets agreement with the UO Athletics department an agreement which required students to pay fees each term for access to games, regardless of whether they chose to attend them.
The student section at Autzen Stadium during a football game, pre-pandemic.
Members of the student government at the University of Oregon were reviewing their $17 million annual budget last summer when they came across a decades-old contract with the athletics department, which gave students access to tickets for football and basketball games. About 10 percent of the student government budget, or $1.7 million, was going to the athletics department each year in exchange for “free” student tickets to athletic events, according to members of the Student Senate’s Athletics and Contracts Finance Committee.
The discovery immediately raised red flags. The university had canceled athletic events during the spring term because of the pandemic, and students were not attending any sporting events on campus. The Ducks upcoming fall football season was also in question.