Jay tells regents, travel subsidies here to stay

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The University of Hawaii won’t pursue relief from paying travel subsidies to its conference foes, athletic director Ben Jay said.

In response to a question from John Holzman, chairman of the UH Board of Regents, Jay told the Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics on Thursday, "we have no bargaining power, we have no leverage, frankly."

UH currently pays approximately $1.25 million per year to subsidize travel to Hawaii for opponents in the Mountain West and Big West conferences,

For example, UH will pay $150,000 for Saturday’s football opponent, Fresno State, to come to Aloha Stadium. And it will pay approximately $500 per person for members of the UC Riverside women’s volleyball team to play the Rainbow Wahine tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center and Cal State Fullerton to play Sunday.

UH receives no assistance for its travel to Mountain West football destinations or Big West competition.

Jay said, "I’ve talked to both (conference) commissioners. The only thing I got from them was, ‘that was the only way we could get you into the conference.’ "

Jay said, "we accept that. We’re going to move on and make that part of our budget (each year)."

Deal reached with HGEA

The HGEA announced Thursday that it reached a tentative one-year agreement with Jay this week on a new overtime pay structure for athletic department support staff.

The previous memorandum of agreement expired and the HGEA said on Aug. 1 the deal would not be renewed and began negotiations on a new deal. Jay froze overtime pay, citing funding constraints, and asked the staff to limit the hours they worked.

HGEA said due to "non-traditional schedules, most (support staff) worked over 40 hour a week."

For example, the HGEA statement said, "on average athletic trainers are working 650 hours of overtime a year and were compensated $2,925. This equals $4.50 an hour, $2.75 less than minimum wage."

Jay did not go into details of the deal, but said the new agreement, when approved, would add "about $30,000" to UH’s payroll for support staff overtime, including athletic trainers.