THE RECENT report submitted by the Task Force for the Department of Athletics represents a shameful last-ditch effort by which the University might treat its ailing athletic department. Its proposed "solution" has confirmed once and for all that the University's allegiance is no longer to the ideals of its founder, but rather to the almighty dollar.
U.Va. sold its soul years ago, when it began drastically lowering admissions standards for athletes playing revenue sports. But just to remove any doubt as to where the University's priorities lie, the task force has concocted a ridiculous set of recommendations that completely ignore the true problem at hand.
The problem is that the University wants to maintain unreasonable academic and athletic standards. Athletics and academics have nothing to do with each other and are arguably antagonistic, at least in a university setting. Consequentially, very few schools can get away with cultivating both academics and athletics. As the task force readily admits, only a handful of schools have done this successfully - Stanford University and Duke University are the two that most often come to mind. Although many will tell you otherwise, the University's reputation does not match up with the Stanfords and Dukes of the world.
Why then, would the oldest and most prestigious public school in the country try desperately to accomplish the impossible - to increase academic and athletic standards simultaneously? Because in theory, doing both would be more financially rewarding than choosing one over the other - never mind the fact that it will never happen.
U.Va. students took their first hit when the University began lowering its admissions standards. Does the fact that virtually any high school All-American who plays a revenue sport can gain acceptance to the University and graduate in no way cheapen our degrees? Of course it does. But the task force's most recent proposal, if enacted, might deal an even more crushing blow to the general population of students.
|
In order to raise academic and athletic standards at the University, the task force came up with a clever scheme - the 24 varsity sports teams will be divided into four tiers and financial support will be based on these tiers. Tiers three and four will both have a "minimal staff and operating budgets." Tier three sports will have limited athletic grants in aid, whereas tier four sports will have none. This is the equivalent of a death sentence for baseball, cross country, golf, softball, tennis, track and field, volleyball and wrestling. It hardly seems in line with the goal given to the task force by the athletic department of undertaking "the planning necessary to maintain its status and to bolster areas that have not yet achieved eminence or stability."
In fact, the proposal is in no way designed to "bolster areas that have not yet achieved eminence or stability." The whole structure is intended to support two athletic department demigods - football and basketball. Third and fourth tier athletic teams, which will have virtually no merit based grant in aids, will require minimal financial resources. Yet these pseudo-club sports will still be considered a part of the athletic department, raising its overall graduation rate and mean GPA and in effect giving the more financially rewarding teams some academic leeway. They will also help bolster the appearance that the athletic department is more diverse than most. The reality is that U.Va. is cutting half of its sports. But how does this affect the average University student?
Whether or not they want to, University students pay $238 a year to the athletic department, which is 21.4 percent of the "student fees." A significant portion of that $238 will pay for the operating costs of soon-to-be defunct lower tier sports. Should students be forced to support sports that no one watches, that no longer have any chance of competing at the national level or garnering national media attention, and whose sole purpose is to indirectly support football and basketball? Certainly not.
The proposed tier system wastes vast amounts of students' money. If U.Va. is concerned with the financial stability of the athletic department, it shouldn't spend money on sports that will not in any way be able to benefit the University. Reducing half of its sports teams to almost nothing while keeping them around just to prop up the athletic department as a whole, all at the expense of the entire University, is not the answer. If this is about money, we should stop beating around the bush and either find a way to adequately support the lower tier sports, or cut them.
Eventually the University will have to choose between athletic and academic prowess. Since those in charge are still under the illusion that the University can have a stellar athletic department without sacrificing the academic integrity of the school, that choice will have to wait. When the time comes, we can only hope that the University will resist the temptation of trying to emulate schools like Duke and Stanford, and instead focus on what makes the University so special in the first place - a 182 year tradition of churning out gifted students and leaders.
Of more immediate concern is the forthcoming restructuring of the athletic department. The task force's recommendations, although they were ostensibly created to comply with Title IX, increase academic performance in athletics, and balance the athletic department's budget, are in actuality based entirely on maximizing profit.
Some things in life are more important than money - indeed, most things are. If the Board of Visitors approves the most recent proposal and expects it to repair the growing rift between the University as a whole and the athletic department, they will have taken one more step toward turning what was once a hallowed learning institution into a mere financial machine. And if our very own University cannot escape the temptations of the almighty dollar, we should ask ourselves what kind of values we are instilling in our students.
(Bob Thiele is a fourth-year Engineering student. He is a member of the cross country and track and field teams.)
Read More
PATEL: Personal development courses support students beyond the gradebook
By Heer Patel | 17 hours agoThe University must rethink its approach to education beyond traditional major-specific requirements and mandate personal development courses.
EDITORIAL: Commercialization threatens U.Va.’s educational mission
By Editorial Board | YesterdayAfter all, measuring the University’s worth in terms of accrued capital, operational efficiency and numerical rankings molds this space into just another cookie-cutter institution.
YOUNIS: Why every U.Va. student should say yes to English
By Ayat Younis | 6 days agoEvery student at the University, regardless of their primary field of study, can professionally and academically benefit from engaging with the English department.
