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Letter to the Editor

A Win-Win Solution for Athletics, Chancellor

Dear Editor:

I recently read in your pages about two interesting — and, I submit, related — issues. On one hand, UCSD’s athletics department is in poor financial shape and wants students to bail it out. On the other, UCSD’s chancellor wants to sit on more corporate boards than she is allowed.

I propose a solution to both:

The San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that Chancellor Marye Anne Fox made at least $340,000 from her board services last year. Under a new policy, she would need permission from UC President Robert C. Dynes to keep doing so.

I suggest this: Why not have the A.S. Council draft a resolution supporting an exception for Fox’s board service, if she, in exchange, offers to donate half of her board compensation to the athletics department? It’s a win-win for everyone. And if the athletics department is really in dire need, the tireless chancellor could pick up a half-dozen more board seats, to help out.

OK, I’ll be the first to admit this brings up some thorny ethical issues. So instead, I offer another alternative.

The university announced plans last year to spend $7.2 million to rebuild University House, the mansion in which the chancellor is supposed to live. Never mind, for a second, that UCSD is pitching in $800,000, though it can’t find the money to support athletics. And never mind that private donors want to rescue Fox from having to experience the wretched life of living in a rented $6,500-a-month La Jolla house (for which the university pays), but can’t kick in any dough for athletics.

How about this: In exchange for permission to serve on the boards, Fox offers to change her contract and no longer requires the university to build her a new mansion. Maybe she could start paying for her own rent, too. And the university uses the newly freed-up $7.2 million to support the athletics department. Assuming it’s invested with a very modest annual return of 5 percent, the interest would yield $360,000 a year — more than enough for UCSD to comply with NCAA Division II athletic scholarship requirements.

That’s sensible, wouldn’t you agree?

— Vladimir Kogan

UCSD Alumnus

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