Fight Fiercly
Fight fiercely, Harvard,
Fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill!
Howbeit they possess the might,
Nonetheless, we have the will!. . .
Hurl that spheroid down the field,
And fight, fight, fight!
--Dr. Thomas Lehrer, Mathematician
The recent story of HSU’s plans to raise student fees by $250 per semester didn’t surprise me, since I knew most universities are hurting for money these days. What did amaze me, though, was the statement that four fifths of the money was to fund the athletic program. And the fact HSU spends $2.2 million a year on it. This at an institution that budgeted zero dollars for new library books for the past several years, and frittered away $250,000 on pretty “gates” designed to let people who went there know where they were.
All this really begs the question: What is a university for? Is it a publicly-funded farm system for professional sports? Is it a source of entertainment for people who want to enjoy the thrill of victory without the agony of exercise? Or is it about books and learning and research and. . .education?
More and more universities, when they remember their mission, are opting to ensure students and faculty are provided with the tools they need to teach and learn. In the good old days, when money for schools was abundant, they could afford to waste it on things that had nothing to do with education. They could afford to pay coaches and staffs high salaries, to pay to fly teams and support staff to other cities or states to compete. They could afford to bribe star athletes to choose their school over another, to shed glory on the institution of higher learning by. . .physical prowess. And pay for tutors to help them pass courses for which they are ill-equipped and ill-prepared, so they can continue to “play.”
Well, playtime is over, kids. Colleges can no longer afford the luxury of confusing athletic skill with education. College athletes, up til now content to work “for free”, are now looking at their coaches’ million dollar salaries, and saying “we should get some of that, too.” And even sports writers are agreeing, and suggesting that intercollegiate athletics is a multi-million dollar business, has nothing at all to do with colleges, and should become part of the professional sports world.
But when the students have to pay $200 a semester so they can pay more to go to “games”, while doing without textbooks in their library, and doing without the classes they came here to take, it’s the schoolmaster who deserves the hickory stick. Let the jocks be paid like professionals, but not out of the kids’ lunch money.
Comments
Nice to see back and posting. I wondered what had happened. Your piece is spot on. Education at all levels seems to have lost its way. The long terms effects of deciding to expend our national treasury on doomed "privatization" shemes and foreign conquest will apparently lead to an increasingly more poorly educated populace.
Posted by: Anderson | March 16, 2007 09:32 PM
Your piece is spot on, as it seems Anderson is a result of this education system. He cannot spell, or write in complete sentences. As for sports in the education system, I agree. At elementary, junior high and high school levels, sports have become more about winning than about teamwork, socializing with your peers and an entertaining way to spend Friday nights. Schools need to get back to the basics and teach our kinds Math, Science and English.
Posted by: Jim_Dandy324 | March 26, 2007 06:47 PM