The high-profile 2007 Civil War football game has been scheduled for the Saturday between week 10 and final exams – a move that directly contradicts a joint resolution passed by faculty senates at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.
Although the University Senate has no authority to force the Athletic Department to alter the football schedule through its resolution, the date has drawn the ire of University faculty members already upset about what they see as an imbalance between academics and athletics.
The game is a result of a request from ESPN to have the Ducks play on Thursday, Nov. 15 at Arizona, a game that is said to bring the Athletic Department six-figure dollars in additional revenue. Dave Williford, assistant athletic director of media services, previously told the Emerald that scheduling games during finals week is sometimes unavoidable.
Nevertheless, some faculty are unhappy with the schedule.
“(The game) is totally against what the faculty said,” said art history professor Richard Sundt, who proposed the resolution in March 2001. “I’m very disappointed to hear this.”
It’s not the first time
In 2001, the Athletic Department scheduled that year’s Civil War game to take place on the Saturday before finals week.
Angered over the decision, the university senates at the University of Oregon and Oregon State crafted a joint resolution explicitly stating concern over scheduling games on that weekend.
The resolution suggests that “major events should not interfere with dead week and final exams,” and urged “a heightened sensitivity to the academic calendar by the athletic departments of our two universities.” It passed unanimously in April 2001.
This year, the Athletic Department decided to shift its football game at Arizona from Saturday, Nov. 10 to Thursday, Nov. 15 to fulfill a request from the Pac-10’s broadcast contract with ESPN. As a result of the shift, each subsequent game was pushed back one week, leaving this year’s Civil War game to take place on Dec. 1, the Saturday before finals week.
Athletic Director Bill Moos consulted the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee, a committee within the University Senate that is intended to advise the Athletic Department, before committing to this change, and told The Register-Guard newspaper that “the faculty was comfortable” with the later date.
Jim Isenburg, chair of the IAC, said Moos said that if the University altered the schedule to include the Thursday game this season, it wouldn’t be faced with the same conflict again for at least another five years.
Neither Moos nor an Athletic Department spokesperson were available for comment Thursday.
Isenburg said there was about 12 to 15 minutes of discussion on the issue, and no formal vote was taken, which he said was normal.
Turnover on the University Senate apparently wiped clean the memories of the resolution for those on the IAC, because members of the group contacted for this story said no one on the committee knew about the resolution.
They did say that if they had known, their discussion probably would have been more in-depth.
“It was discussed back and forth, but nobody brought up any serious objections at the time,” Isenburg said. “It’s a big contract, and of course every time we play in front of TV cameras we, i.e., the
Athletic Department, (bring in revenue).”
Isenburg said he thought there was a good balance between academics and athletics, and that playing a Thursday game or a game during week 10 wasn’t a “nefarious thing.”
IAC member Whitney Wagone said she wasn’t aware of the resolution during the IAC’s discussion. She said the Athletic Department was doing a good job balancing the schedule to not interfere with academics, and that if this only occurred very rarely it wasn’t a serious issue.
“I think that students are the ones that are needing to take responsibility for their personal time, and that they have lots of options in terms of distraction entertainment,” she said.
Sundt, who proposed the 2001 resolution, said the issue was, and is, an overemphasis of athletics over academics.
The context was much the same as it is today, he said. With low graduation rates and low class attendance he felt the last thing students needed during a crucial academic period was a big distraction.
“I thought that having the Civil War game during Dead Week, when academics were supposed to be paramount, was a mistake,” he said.
Oregon State Athletic Director Bob DeCarolis said Thursday evening that he had just left an Oregon State IAC meeting and the group had not raised the issue of the resolution.
“We brought it up and nothing was said,” he said. “We’ve been down this road before.”
He said the football team had done better academically this year despite a Thanksgiving Civil War game and trips to Hawaii and Southern California.
As far as the rest of the students were concerned, he said these decisions had to be decided by the students themselves.
“People have to make a decision about what’s important to them,” he said. “I guess I don’t see what the fuss is all about.”
But some faculty still weren’t convinced.
“I think a lot of faculty are upset about the scheduling of the football game,” ex-senate President Jeffrey Hurwit said. “It flies in the face of a senate resolution and it obviously is very detrimental to the academic performance not only to the members of the football team but also to the students that will be tempted to take time out of their studying to go to a football game.”
Sundt agreed.
“There are academic priorities that are begin snuffed out here,” Sundt said. “We have this escalation constantly.”
Student Perspective
Lexi Kendall, Freshman, Special Education
“I’d still go (to the game) if I needed to study … because it’s such a big deal. I guess some people party a lot so it wouldn’t be very smart because they won’t be able to do anything on Sunday.”
Phil Wood, Junior,
Political Science
“I’ll go to Civil War regardless. At the same time I’ll bitch that its right before finals … someone should be impeached.”
Shanté Stuart, Junior,
Ethnic Studies and Business
“I’ll still go to the game. Finals will just have to get cut short … The after parties are going to be out of control. It’s going to be all-weekend mayhem.”
Devin Lindquist,
Sophomore, Education
“If it’s a Saturday, I don’t see how its going affect anyone … I think that that’s who it would most affect, the football players, because of their practice schedule.”
CORRECTION
Because multiple reporters were sharing notes to work on this story, Michael Moffitt was originally credited with the quote from ex-senate president Jeffrey Hurwit. Moffitt was never interviewed for the story, so those views initially attributed to him do not necessarily express his actual viewpoints. The Emerald regrets the error.