LINKS
PETITIONPlease sign our petition to save dropped OU sports. Click here. If your current circumstances or position with Ohio University do not require anonymity, we request that you sign with your name rather than as "Anonymous" as some have. Thank you and thanks to the Women's Lacrosse blog for setting up this petition.MORE LINKSBobcat Attack Message BoardOhio University Alumni AssociationOU Students have an active discussion going on in FaceBook.Com. Click here to go to FaceBook.Com and join in.OU Student Newspaper "The Post Online"www.EquityinAthletics.orgSave James Madison University Sports.orgTaking Inside Higher Ed to the MatEMAIL CONTACT FOR THIS SITE: SaveOUSports ATgmailDOTcom |
Dropped Athletes Donated Hundreds of Volunteer Hours Worth Thousands of Dollars to Support FootballRecent News related to these volunteer hours donated by OU's "minor sports" student athletes:
EMBEZZLEMENT IN OU'S DEPARTMENT OF INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS!
According to press reports, a material amount of the money these student athletes collected through their volunteer activities was embezzled by an Ohio University official, one who played a role in the decision to cut their teams. He was fired and reportedly reimbursed OU for more than $30,000 that he had converted to personal use.
One of the ironies about this sad situation is that the student athletes of the dropped teams, over recent years, have donated hundreds, probably thousands, of hours of their free time to help support the budgets of the "revenue sports." These athletes also performed this volunteer work because their own teams were supposed to receive a percentage of the receipts - this is one of the ways their team's budgets were supplemented.Outside the athletes themselves who donated these hours, few know that they did this.At every home football game, for example, the students in the parking lots taking your parking fees and directing you to your parking space were members of other sports teams willingly helping the Athletic Department conserve its funds. These students did this for free showing their loyalty to OU athletics.At every home football game, the students in the parking lots, in and around Peden Stadium who spent the game selling raffle tickets instead of sitting in the stands enjoying the game, were the same student athletes whose teams were cut.How much would the OU Athletic Department have had to pay for these services otherwise? Let's do some conservative estimating just for home football games:At each home football game:Approximately 10 student athletes in parking lots taking tickets for two hours at, say, $6.00 per hour = $120.00Approximately 10 student athletes at ticket gates for two hours before each game, during the three hours of each game at, say, $6.00 per hour = $300.00Approximately 10 student athletes at games selling raffle tickets for two hours before each game and during two hours of the game until winners are announced at, say, $6.00 per hour = $240.00This comes to approximately $660.00 per game in free labor.With approximately seven home games (from OU's 2007 schedule), this comes to $4,620 OU's Athletic Department saved.
$4,620 in volunteer labor contributed annually by dropped athletes.This is conservative and approximate and is just for football games.What might the Swimming and Diving Team or the Track and Field Team have been able to do with this money? Given their meager budgets and their careful spending of what they had, they could have done a lot.
For example, instead of sleeping four to a cheap motel room on the road (football players slept two to a room in decent hotels), they might have been able to have had more rooms and possibly better food.What did the OU Athletic Department do with the money it didn't have to spend to pay for these services?Some of the expenses the Athletic Department incurred (check out the OU Finances page to see what they are) included bonuses for OU's football coaches for going to the GMAC Bowl.Is this what these kids donated their time for?They donated their time because they are loyal Bobcats.They did not deserve to be treated this way.Anyone who can provide more accurate information on these calculations is encouraged to email us and we will update this page.
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DROPPED TEAMS
2006 Women's Lacrosse Team
Women's Save Ohio Lacrosse Blog
LaxPower.com message board discussion on OU LAX
Women's Lacrosse web page at OU website
Swimming and Diving
Save Ohio Swimming and DivingandSave Ohio Swimming
Swimming and Diving web page at OU website
Save Ohio University Swimming Discussion Forum
Track and Field
Bringing Back Ohio Track Blog
Track and Field web page at OU website
YouTube video put together for the Track and Field Team
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Copyright 2007 - 2008 by SaveOUSports.org - Email: SaveOUSports AT gmail DOT comSaveOUsports.org is a non-profit group devoted to action that will reinstate discontinued varsity sports at Ohio University.
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