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Show Assembly should examine athletics In an inspired action last summer, the ASUU Assembly froze its $249,500 allotment to the University Department of Athletics because the athletic budget had not gone through the regular budgetary channels. Although the Department of Athletics released its total 1972-1973 budget breakdown, the budget has not completed the Assembly's procedural course, and probably won't for at least several more weeks. This is the only time students (though representatives in ASUU) have any control over the athletic budget. Once the Assembly approves it. students continue their $5 per quarter with no say at all. To ensure that the students get their money's worth, the Assembly's Budget Steering Committee ought to hold hearings on the entire quarter-million-dollar donation. Officials of the Department of Athletics should testify and justify their use of student funds. Interested students and administrators should be allowed to speak. While it's still our money, before we've given it away, we ought to be very sure what it's being spent for. In short, apply to the athletic budget the same standards as the state legislature or the national Congress apply to any appropriation of public funds. Regardless of how much the Assembly wants to appropriate to intercollegiate athletics, more or less than at present, the decision should be the Assembly's, not ordered by anybody else. A careful examination into the athletic budget is not an attack on school spirit, or the football team's hopes, or a witchhunt. However, students desire to control the expenditure of their own money, money foribly collected from them. If students want to spend more on athletics, so be it but it should be the students' decision. |
