LETTER: University, athletic programs should divorce

Dear Editor,

I may have missed the boat here. If that is the case, I can’t help but insist that I was lead on. Maybe it had something to do with having to perform academically in order to be admitted to a university. Maybe it has something to do with the hope that a university diploma means something more than having abided my time there. Somewhere along the line, I was lead to believe that universities are academic institutions. But, as I see athletic coaches earn more money than full professors, many thousands of dollars awarded to the building of new athletic facilities instead of maintaining educational materials, and even things like the marching band using a school parking lot to practice instead of the practice field, thereby forcing students to either leave early or be ticketed, I have to wonder where the priorities of the institution are.

I am not anti-athletics. I just feel that athletic clubs should not use state money that has been allotted to educational institutions, which I hope that universities are still considered to be.

Worldwide, one of the most competitive sports is soccer. Latin America is one of the leading producers of professional soccer players. Yet, their athletic clubs are not associated with their institutions for education. They are privately owned, even on the minor levels. The people still get to participate in the excitement of the games and players still become professional athletes, some of the best in the world I might add.

So, we have nothing to lose through a divorce of academic institutions and athletic clubs but our traditions. But, through this divorce we would have the ability to better use funds intended for educational purposes. We need to remember that athletics are not what keeps our world working, nor our nation growing. Education is the key to the “brighter future” that we all hope for. Let’s take steps to further the possibilities.

Kent Bodily