An attempt by the faculty senate to halt university payments to the athletic department has been put on the backburner until winter term. A committee chaired by economics professor Bill Harbaugh and seated by President Michael Gottfredson has been proposed in its place.

Harbaugh’s bill sought to cut the $2,000,000 annually given to the athletic department that funds tutors and other academic support at the Jaqua Academic Center, and asked for a 2 percent kickback from athletics to be given back to UO’s general fund. The bill teeter-tottered around the senate agenda, first being taken off Monday morning then reinstated Wednesday morning, by faculty senate president Margie Paris, at the request of the senators.

The faculty senate, which meets around once a month, barely peppered the two hundred seat auditorium, but there was a contentious air in the room between senators and administrators, punctuated by an appearance by Gottfredson, who addressed the senate before voting.

“I’d start by reminding everybody, from my own observation, that we have an athletics program that is amazing,” Gottfredson told the senate. “It contributes to the strength of the university in many, many ways.” Gottfredson mentioned the rapid increase in both revenues and expenses of the athletic department, which has burst onto the national stage in the last half-decade.

Speaking on many of the benefits of a major athletic program, such as growing interest across the country, as well as the relatively cheap funding given by the university compared to peer institutions, the President didn’t waver in supporting the kickback.

“Their revenues are large, their costs are large, [and they have] been increasing. There’s a considerable national interest, and local interest, and should be,” Gottfredson said in a rare appearance in front of the faculty senate. “It’s my view that it’s fair and appropriate and it’s necessary that our athletic department be allowed to rely on those agreements and those budgets.”

Following the address, a brief question and answer session with Gottfredson gave way to the possibility of assembling a new committee to address the concerns. The president spoke of numerous committees in charge of budgets, to which the senate responded they had no part in. Interim senior vice president and provost Scott Coltrane questioned whether the senate even had the authority to make such a resolution.

“I don’t know how to say this delicately, but I would kind of like to know what’s going on here,” Coltrane said. “What is the goal of this legislation, which exceeds the power the senate? You’re setting up a confrontation with the president, who will either ignore or veto the motion. It’s confrontational politics, what are you trying to get out of it?”

Harbaugh responded.

“My goal with this is, I’m trying to be constructive with this, Scott. I think I’ve been trying to be constructive with this process all the way along,” Harbaugh said. “… The senate budget committee, which you’re relying on to act as the intermediary here, doesn’t even have a single senator on it, and has been ineffective. Noticeably ineffective in the past in dealing with this, for a long history since 2011. So I’m more than willing to work for a clever way to work with the administration on this, but everything tried so far has been a failure.”

In response, senators proposed to push the resolution to the first meeting of winter term and in the meantime instate a committee. Senator Randy Sullivan proposed that, because the senate may be left out of some fundamental committees, that a new committee be established, with both Harbaugh and Gottfredson as members, to which they both agreed

“We need Bill Harbaugh and a real delegate from the president need to sit down and hammer out a compromise,” Sullivan said.

The new committee will be chaired by  Habraugh, though it has not yet scheduled a time to meet. They are scheduled to meet before the next session to announce what they’ve talked about.