Les Miles and Trent Johnson pull in big bucks to rack up wins — a financial burden Athletic Director Joe Alleva said is unavoidable to keep the University athletically competitive. Alleva justified high coach salaries at the Faculty Senate meeting Monday, saying competitive salaries are necessary to hire coaches who will lead sports teams to victory.”When I’m hiring a coach, I want the best because I want to win,” Alleva said. “I have to pay market value to get that person. I don’t like it, but that’s the world we live in now.”Despite the acknowledgement by both Alleva and the Senate that coach salaries are too high, Alleva said that was outweighed by the positives in the athletic program, including its ability to give money back to the University.”This past year, over $9 million has been given back to the University by the Athletic Department,” Alleva said. Alleva spoke optimistically about next football season.”[The team] is a good group. There’s a lot of excitement on the field,” he said.The Senate also heard a Student Government presentation on a new policy for class withdrawals. SG Senator Meghan Hanna, University Center for Advising and Counseling, explained the proposal, which she called a “3-2-1 tier system.”With the new system, students would be allowed three W’s during their freshman and sophomore years, two W’s during junior and senior years and one additional W for the remaining time needed to complete an undergraduate degree. Student Government President Colorado Robertson said the new system would combat the “use it or lose it” mentality students have about W’s, which do not roll over after the allotted time for use has passed.Faculty Senate former President William Daly explained another advantage of the proposal.”Some students come in with over 24 hours of credit [which eliminates their first three allotted W’s],” Daly said. “This way, spread out over 2 years, they are able to take advantage of the drops.”Faculty Senate Resolution 09-05 was another topic of discussion. The resolution deals with the issue of students purchasing multiple student response clickers for different classes. The resolution encourages University faculty to use only Turning Point brand clickers, unless colleges or departments are willing to supply other clicker brands to students at no cost.Mass communication professor Danny Shipka said i-Clickers, another brand, are used in his class because they were provided at no extra cost as part of the textbook package. Shipka said students can purchase a book and i-Clicker together for a package price. He said this resolution’s insistence that other brands of clickers be provided to students for free would be costly for the Manship School.”[This resolution] is asking us to pay for i-Clickers for 1,000 students,” Shipka said.Per the senate’s policy, the resolution will have a second reading in May.The Senate also elected next year’s officers.Kevin Cope was unopposed in his bid for another term as president. Pratul Ajmera was elected vice president and Renee Casberque was chosen as secretary.—-Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]