Funding for bus transport to home hockey games OK’d by Student Gov.

A resolution to bus University of Toledo students to the Toledo Ice House for hockey club games passed the student senate Tuesday.

“The premise of the legislation is kind of to extend on this whole Rocket Pride thing we’ve been hosting,” said Senator Ronald Tallon during a meeting with the SG Steering committee. “This legislation’s going to try and help us establish more of an outreach to athletics.”

Tallon, who authored the resolution, proposed that SG provide $400 for transporting students to the seven home UT hockey games of the season. With the resolution, there would be two 50-seat buses going to and from the Toledo Ice House.

“What I’m hoping to do is create a precedent, and have a permanent bus that’ll take you to and from the Ice House during hockey games for the next few seasons,” Tallon said.

In addition to free busing for students, Tallon said Campus Activities and Programming is covering the cost of student tickets to the first game as well, with Commuter Services paying for the cost of tickets to the second game.

The resolution was met with debate from both senators and the Student Judicial Council.

One concern an SJC justice expressed was that donating the money would set a precedent for other sports clubs

“I think it’s going to set an interesting precedent, and that’s going to cause some issues down the road. Obviously SG doesn’t have enough money to pay for each and every time, but there aren’t that many sports that are off campus to begin with,” Tallon said.

Senator Robert Worthington voted nay, and expressed his dissent against the bill during debate.

“I don’t believe we should support specifically, especially just for busing, to one club’s sporting events when we haven’t done and don’t do for other sports’ clubs,” Worthington said, “and I believe that other sports clubs do work hard to raise money themselves as well, so I believe that the money that the hockey club gets itself should be used for advertisement.”

Tallon pointed out that while the hockey team has their own money, they also have numerous expenses.

“Yes, hockey has a lot of money … but hockey has to pay for everything, including their own transportation, their own equipment, and the use of the Ice House, because UT doesn’t own that,” Tallon said.

The resolution passed almost unanimously.

“I think this helps establish SG more in the zone of school spirit,” Tallon said. “Rocket Fanatics week was a big hit for us, it really kinda kind of brought us back to the table in showing we’re not this old relic who just does random legislation that hides in a corner. We’re here, we’re school school-spirited, we want to be involved and we want to represent the students fully.” Tallon said.