For many people, collegiate athletics contribute a huge portion of a college’s identity, even overshadowing the schools’ academic programs and research initiatives. College administrators see athletics as a way to reach out to possible donors, alumni, supporters, and prospective students. Little wonder that schools strive to field quality teams in order to win games, conference titles, bowl games, and national championships.
In football, the Hail-Mary pass is a last-second, desperation play that has a chance of winning or tying the game, but has a very low probability of success.
Colleges and universities try something like the Hail-Mary when they attempt to use success in athletics as a means of improving their academic reputations and finances. The idea is that winning at sports will transfer over to the institution as a whole, boosting applications and funding. Like the Hail-Mary pass, it’s unlikely to succeed, but college administrators keep trying.
RALEIGH – It’s nearly August, and university classes will begin soon. Meanwhile, both within and without the halls, those who love academe are voicing concerns over the content of those courses. It’s fluff, it’s biased, it should have been taught in high school, it shouldn’t be taught at all, it certainly shouldn’t be taught by other students, the same stuff is on public-access TV, it’s being taught only so the professor can have a set of “research assistants” helping him with his book, well if it’s going to be taught, how about grading the students on what they’ve learned, &c. It’s enough to make true scholars despair.
RALEIGH – Since the start of the 2004 short session, House and Senate leaders have debated a series of proposals that would increase the debt load for the state while funding several projects within the University of North Carolina system.
RALEIGH – I write a monthly column for Carolina Journal entitled “Course of the Month,” which is a Golden Fleece Award for courses in North Carolina universities that feature “overt political content, rabid infatuation with pop culture or sexuality, [or] abject silliness.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education often publishes articles with which I take exception, but the July 2 issue contained a real doozy – a rant entitled “The Contradictions of Cultural Conservatism in the Assault on American Colleges” by Donald Lazere, an English professor at Cal State-San Luis Obispo.
Another bond package has been approved for the University of North Carolina system, but this one was done without voter approval. State legislators approved a nearly $340 million bond package to finance a what were deemed “necessary projects” for the UNC system, even though some did not appear on the UNC Board of Governors’ wish list.
CONCORD – It’s been a troubling few months for officials at Barber-Scotia College.
CHAPEL HILL – Proposed legislation affecting the University of North Carolina system captured headlines throughout the 2004 short session. Most centered on the $340 million bond package that included some projects that had not even been approved by the UNC Board of Governors. There were other bills, however, concerning higher education that either passed or were dropped in anticipation for greater discussion next year.
WILMINGTON – In the span of a month, two killings have shocked the college community at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, leading to questions regarding the UNC system’s admission policies as well as campus security.