Athletics contract review to start

Associated Students, Inc. is looking into what went wrong with its contract with the Athletics Department.

A subcommittee will be assigned at 3 p.m. this afternoon to review the current athletics contract between ASI and the Athletics Department.

"We have some very serious concerns with the athletics contract as it is," said ASI president Gary Davis. "By generating this list of discussion points we will be able to initiate a clear and consistent dialogue with the Athletics Department on this very important student issue."

In a previous meeting, a resolution urging ASI to enforce the contract was presented by Sean South, director of undeclared students.

The resolution outlined the Athletics Department's failure to provide a detailed report to the Athletics Advisory Board, as well as the ASI board of directors, of gender equity and graduation rates of student athletes.

Presently, the Athletics Department has not been successful in achieving a student athlete graduation rate (40 percent) equal to that of the student population (53 percent).

Previously, Davis said that ASI had failed to enforce the terms of the agreement that students voted to institute in 1995.

The subcommittee will come back to the board with the results of their discussion, but no date has been set yet.

The subcommittee to review the Athletics Contract will be comprised of ASI board members.

In other business, Davis will present Joe Gibson, former two-term ASI president, as the boards' ex-officio representative of Alumni Affairs. "Gibson's former experience in ASI, having served two successive terms as ASI president for the 1979/80 and 1980/81 academic years, gives him a wealth of knowledge of our organization," Davis said.

Gibson is also currently an active member of the Hornet Athletic Foundation.