Crankyness
Is anyone else as pissed off as I am about the New York Times article "Small Colleges, Short of Men, Embrace Football"? (It's here, but I think it requires a membership.) I had to stop reading after this quote:
"I could have started a spiffy new major of study, spent a lot of money on lab equipment and hired a few new high-powered professors," [JoAnne Bolye, president of Seton Hill University, a 123-year-old former women's institution] said. "I might have gotten 25 more students for that. And I couldn't have counted on that major still being popular in 15 years.
"Instead, I started a football team, brought in hundreds of paying students, added a vibrant piece to our campus life and broadened our recognition factor. And in the long history of American higher education, one thing you can count on is football's longevity. Football is here to stay."
Yes. Because so many of those football players pay to go to school. And so many of the alumni who now will give money, give money for the school in general instead of earmarked for the sports. And because paying students are the most important thing, not providing a quality education...
Oh, why am I even trying.
I know why I'm trying. Because my institution pours enormous amounts of money into sports -- football, primarily, but others as well -- while the academic departments scramble to find enough money to pay instructors.
Not professors. Not even fucking TAs. Instructors. Adjuncts who get paid, at most, a couple thousand bucks per course.
Crankyness does not even begin to cover it.
"I could have started a spiffy new major of study, spent a lot of money on lab equipment and hired a few new high-powered professors," [JoAnne Bolye, president of Seton Hill University, a 123-year-old former women's institution] said. "I might have gotten 25 more students for that. And I couldn't have counted on that major still being popular in 15 years.
"Instead, I started a football team, brought in hundreds of paying students, added a vibrant piece to our campus life and broadened our recognition factor. And in the long history of American higher education, one thing you can count on is football's longevity. Football is here to stay."
Yes. Because so many of those football players pay to go to school. And so many of the alumni who now will give money, give money for the school in general instead of earmarked for the sports. And because paying students are the most important thing, not providing a quality education...
Oh, why am I even trying.
I know why I'm trying. Because my institution pours enormous amounts of money into sports -- football, primarily, but others as well -- while the academic departments scramble to find enough money to pay instructors.
Not professors. Not even fucking TAs. Instructors. Adjuncts who get paid, at most, a couple thousand bucks per course.
Crankyness does not even begin to cover it.
posted by ceresina at 10:54 AM
3 Comments:
Football scholarships do bring some students to universities who otherwise might not have had the financial opportunity to go, right?
But it does make me crazy when sports get so much money and academic departments, which should be considered the heart of the school, have to practically have bake sales to get by.
On my graduation day, I was the student rep to the Board of Trustees and they axed the music and fine arts major (at a LIBERAL ARTS college).
Last week in my grad program, I was the student rep who blindsided the main university representative sent to our branch because I pointed out that under the new "cuts", the main campus would get more money at the benefit of the branch campuses taking cuts.
(Got a copy of secured documents to pull that off)
Been there, done that...games in financing a college aren't amusing in any light.
I have much empathy. But I have no answers.
Yes! brightstar, you have it exactly. I have much more sympathy for the players themselves (due to bloggers, actually), but I still am furious over the lip-service given to education, while all the money goes elsewhere.
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