The bill that would implement “equity-focused policies” addressing the behavior of college sports fans attending games at Oregon’s public universities is headed back to the House floor.
House bill 2472-2 would create a formal complaint process and reporting system for instances of bad behavior and require schools to conduct an annual survey of students and athletes and annual report to the state Legislature. The bill was moved to the House floor with a do-pass recommendation and subsequent referral to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means following a 6-3 vote in favor by the House Committee On Higher Education on Tuesday. The vote was mostly along party lines, with five Democrats and one Republican in favor and three Republicans opposed.
The bill originally called for one-week suspensions of Oregon college sports coaches and athletic directors if fans used “derogatory or inappropriate names, insults, verbal assaults, profanity or ridicule in violation of equity focused policies” and could have led to public universities losing state grants, state scholarship money and support from the Oregon State Police if they failed to enact and enforce policies to address such behavior.
