Athletic Board Meeting- February 20th, 2009

Hello fellow SGers,

We recently had an athletic board meeting and touched on many important things. The meeting began with an approval of the agenda and previous minutes from the January meeting. After this the new Men's Track & Cross Country coach Mick Byrne, spoke to the board about his journey to becoming the new UW coach and also his plans while coaching at UW.

Chair, Walter Dickey, presented information about the recent Big Ten Conference and noted that the main topics discussed all focused on the economy and how to save money in this tough economic climate. Later in the meeting, the board revised and discussed the proposed budget. Some things to note in the budget are that the support department cut their budget by 5%, capital projects were cut by 53%, operational sports budgets were reduced, salary increase requests were put on hold, and at the same time there were no ticket price increases. An interesting item of note is that of the 11 schools in the big ten, UW football ticket prices are third cheapest.

The AD, Barry Alvarez noted that the college game day here at UW for the Saturday night Ohio State game went extremely well. The staff at ESPN was thoroughly impressed with our fans behavior and cooperation. It also was important to host game day because the set and crew were broadcasting and reporting throughout the day from the center of the Kohl Center.

The itmes of most importance from this meeting are that on March 31st, there will be a public meeting to discuss the NCAA Self-Study Certification. This was the review of the operations of the UW athletic department. This meeting will allow for the public to voice concerns and ask questions about the certification process and results.

Finally, on March 9th at 5pm, in the Nicholas Suites at the Kohl Center we will be having a student focus group to discuss football ticket policies. It is extremely important that you show up and voice your opinions about the issues. On top of this it will be very informative to hear about the previous policies, current proposed policies, and why things are the way they are. Adam will send out an email and if you plan on attending you will need to RSVP to Megan Lee. Thats all folks see you soon.

Jake McGhee, Athletic Board Rep.