Editor’s note: Orange Media Network, with which The Daily Barometer is affiliated, is involved in the student fees deliberations process.
Oregon State University Athletics sent out an email to OSU students Wednesday night including a petition to save student tickets which has now reached 1,439 signatures.
The number of student tickets available for Oregon State University students next year was the biggest topic at the Student Fee Committee meeting last Thursday, and is set to be discussed again at tonight’s senate meeting. This comes after the committee recommended some sports change the allocated tickets, as recommended below.
The SFC, a branch of the Associated Students of Oregon State University, is responsible for drawing up recommendations for how student fees are allocated. The final recommendation from the SFC involved a raise to student fees by 1.65% from Fiscal Year 2024, with each student paying $535.76 each term.
While Thursday’s docket included student wages, childcare access and operating budgets, arguments over student tickets, which are funded by student fees, dominated the conversation.
“Tickets aren’t actually free,” said Adison Rowe, president pro tempore of the ASOSU Senate. “You pay $150 a year for them, but they’re free to use after you pay that tax.”
Saegis Abbott was the first committee member to bring up the topic of ticket subsidization, indicating that student fees were funding too many tickets than were actually being used.
ASOSU president Audrey Schlotter attempted to steer the conversation away from tickets, emphasizing that the topic of tickets was decided last year and that the meeting was not the opportunity to debate the subject.
Eliza Eckman, senator for ASOSU and chair of the Budget Committee, argued that the number of tickets does have a right to be debated.
Eckman explained that she was temporarily chosen as a representative for the athletics department early in Fall 2024 because she is a student-athlete involved in ASOSU.
“We expressed differing views from athletics viewpoint on maybe changing things up a little bit, reducing the number of tickets to better match how many we have historically been using, which was opposed to what I guess athletics administration wanted,” Eckman said in a later interview.
“The sports in Gill Coliseum were allocated 2,500 tickets for each individual game and for (the) two past years, you’re only using 19.79% of them,” Eckman said.
Following continued debate over ticket subsidization, Abbott posed a surprise motion that sparked commotion among the committee and audience.
According to the transcript, “Abbott moved to enter into a roll call binding vote to recommend a fee level of $64.49 per student per term in Fall 2025, Winter 2026, and Spring 2026 for the requested operating budget for ASOSU.”
Associated Students of OSU Liaison, Katelyn Banks put forth an opposing motion, recommending a student fee of $71.89 per term for ASOSU’s 2025-2026 operating budget. The motion passed with five ayes, four nays, and four abstentions.
Abbott said that the motion was meant to adjust the operating budget to appropriately reflect the number of tickets students have been using.
“It’s just if students aren’t using the tickets, and that money could go to feeding the students… or to student workers or to basic needs, Family Resource Center, or something like that, I prefer (funding) to go there than to pay for tickets that no one uses,” said Abbott.
Abbott’s motion failed with four ayes, eight nays and a single abstention, per the transcript.
Rowe explained that the SFC is merely advisory, and if Abbott’s motion had passed, it would have allowed time for numbers to be crunched before the motion came before the ASOSU senate.
“It’s very unfortunate the SFC passed up on that opportunity and I think it would save students money,” Rowe said. “Students don’t want their money wasted.”
This article contains information from the previous SFC meeting and will be updated as The Barometer receives more information.
