One-third of the total value of all the buildings on the University campus is sports-related. Moreover, during the 2010-11 fiscal year more than one-third of the gifts donated to the university ($43.6 million), a $1.1 million state subsidy and a $1.5 million student-fee subsidy went not to academic departments but to the athletic department.
Chip Kelly and his assistant coaches are paid astounding salaries, plus perks. Palaces are built only for athletes. Recent large raises for top-level administrators on campus are railroaded, however. Those who do the teaching (in frequently overcrowded classes), their assistants and their staff are asked to do more with less. A troubling pattern is emerging here and nationwide: The well-fed athletic tail of schools is wagging the woefully underfed academic dog.
Football teams in particular have become symbols of the American Empire and, inexplicably, of institutions of higher learning. Football — a gladiatorial sport based on brute force, speed, and deceit — creates in many of its followers a passionately unquestioning, competitive, bullying and at-times bloodthirsty attitude that is totally and essentially at odds with the inquiring, scientific, humanistic, rational and cooperative values at the heart of the mission of colleges and universities.
Money corrupts. Sports can, should and sometimes does teach important lessons and impart decent values; however, the more big bucks involved, the less sports do good.
Jerome Garger
Parent of four University graduates