In the recent weeks I have been deeply dismayed by the Oregon Daily Emerald’s handling of the controversy surrounding the newly opened John E. Jaqua Academic Center. As a student-athlete myself, I know firsthand the extraneous challenges presented by being a full-time student and member of a University athletic team. Everybody enrolled at UO knows the demands of school, the varieties of which do not need to be explored. However, those who are not members of athletic teams do not know what it is like to cram the physical demands of an athletic life into a normal academic day.
The reality of being on a sports team basically means that, on top of the academic demands that serve as a common bond to all students, student-athletes must fit an incredibly demanding, physical, and full-time job into the time that constitutes the rest of their day. This is an exhausting feat, but we chose particular sacrifices in order to compete for the University we love. Whether or not the Emerald will ever admit to this, it is extremely good press for the University when the football team makes it to the Rose Bowl, when teams win the NCAA championships and when Galen Rupp becomes the inaugural recipient of the Bowerman Award, an academic award aptly named after the legendary Oregon coach.
The recent issues of the Emerald have launched an all-out assault, via print, on the Jaqua Center, claiming the effect of an exclusive student-athlete learning center has created a privileged class of “royalty” within the student body. The truth of the matter is that student-athletes need a place that can offer them guaranteed academic support in a timely and structured manner. Traveling often and missing class to represent the University tightens the academic challenge on student-athletes, and those who require extra help in the form of tutors and study sessions should be able to get it. For freshman student-athletes, tutoring and study hours are mandatory in order to provide a smooth transition into this hectic lifestyle. The Jaqua Center simply provides these necessary services, even if it is an architectural marvel.
Also, the Emerald has either authored editorial opinions or published guest opinions that have taken cheap shots at Steve Stolp, a man who has made it his life’s work to truly help athletes foster academically; at Dave Frohnmayer, the former president of the University, and also one of the greatest friends this institution, and this state, has ever known; and finally at Phil Knight, whose donations to this University are far sweeping and have yielded multiple academic buildings on campus. Stolp was crucified for misusing the word “umbrage” and for likening the Jaqua Center to the Taj Mahal. It is a childish game to nitpick a misused word and to find deeper, literal meaning in an icon of structural beauty. Villainizing Frohnmayer was also unnecessary, and the notion that he was concerned by anything other than the well being of this university is simply laughable.
The decision to deride Phil Knight for donating privately against Measure 66 and 67 was unnecessary and unfair. Tax-paying citizens have the right to use their private means in whatever manner they chose. A man of Knight’s generosity should not have mud slung at him from the very university he so often supports, especially over a private political donation. If you kill the golden goose there will be no more golden eggs. Alienating Knight’s knack for being the go-to guy for all of the University’s projects, be it academic or athletic, would be true shame.
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