Athletics

Team sports help students build healthy habits and provide valuable lessons in collaboration and sportsmanship. Yet, at their worst, they can corrupt or degrade universities’ missions. The following articles suggest ways to preserve the benefits of university athletics while reducing the academic, financial, and social costs of big-time college sports.

Dialogue sought on higher education

Dec 14, 2005 ·

RALEIGH — The U.S. Department of Education has appointed a commission that will engage in what U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings termed a “national dialogue” about the role of higher education in the 21st century. The 18-member Commission on the Future of Higher Education, including professors, university presidents, business leaders and government officials, will release a report next year.

Spellings said she hopes the commission will not only find ways to improve higher education but also ways for higher education to meet the needs of an increasingly global economy. The commission is expected to release its recommendations to the public in August.

Filmmaker points to bias in higher education

Dec 8, 2005 ·

Evan Coyne Maloney experienced academic biases in higher education first hand as a student at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. At the time, he thought the bias problem might be limited just to Bucknell.

That was until he read Illiberal Education by Dinesh D’Souza and heard about how students at other colleges faced similar situations of academic bias in the classroom. Now, 11 years after Maloney graduated from Bucknell, he is educating others on the problem of academic bias through a series of video documentaries that have received critical acclaim.

Maloney’s video documentary series on higher education is entitled “Brainwashing.” There have been two installments “Brainwashing 101,” and “Brainwashing 201: The Second Semester.” “Brainwashing 201” recently won Best Short Film at the Liberty Film Festival in October.

Chasing the Almighty Sports Dollar

Oct 13, 2005 ·

It’s October, in case you haven’t noticed by the cooler temperatures and the leaves changing colors. You can also tell that fall is here by the way college administrators have begun the traditional fall march of chasing the pipe dream of increased college revenue through athletics.

Locally, two colleges have hung the athletics carrot over the heads of their alumni and supporters with big dreams of new athletics venues and playing against bigger competition. At North Carolina Central University, school officials want to move from Division II athletics to Division I in all sports except for football, where the school would compete in Division I-AA. At North Carolina State, the school is raising money to construct an Arnold Palmer designed golf course.

Pope Conference A Success

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RALEIGH – Presentations by Richard Vedder and Mike Adams were among the highlights of the annual John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy Conference held Oct. 8 at the Hilton-Raleigh-Durham Hotel at Research Triangle Park.

This year’s conference was built around the theme of “Higher Education in America: Do Students and Taxpayers Get Their Money’s Worth?” A group of 12 speakers, including a panel of students, debated various topics in higher education today including the lack of core curriculum, taboo subjects, and what is actually taught in the classroom.

The High Cost and Low Productivity of Our Higher Education System: What it Means for America

Oct 10, 2005 ·

I am honored by the invitation to speak to you today. The Pope Center is a very positive force in rethinking higher education in America. I am somewhat surprised, frankly, that I was invited to speak, since I am an economist, and economists suffer from two defects. First, they are deadly dull. It is usually more fun watching paint dry than listening to an economist. Indeed, it might even be preferable to have a hemorrhoid operation without an anesthetic from an unlicensed French physician to having to listen to an economist pontificate.

Pope Conference Saturday

Oct 6, 2005 ·

RALEIGH – Space is still available for the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy’s annual conference to be held Saturday at the Hilton Hotel in the Research Triangle Park.

Author and economist Richard Vedder is the keynote speaker for this year’s event, titled “Higher Education in America: Do Students and Taxpayers Get Their Money’s Worth.”

Space is still available for those interested in attending. To resgister for the conference, contact Executive Director George Leef at georgeleef@popecenter.org. You may also register online.

“The cost of higher education continue to rise faster than the rate of inflation, but many observer think that quality delivered is going down just as fast,” Leef said. “This conference is designed to explore the important question of how much students and taxpayers are getting for all the money they pour into the quest for college degrees.”

Last year, Vedder’s book Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much examined the rising costs of going to college, how only a fraction of those costs goes toward instruction, and how many colleges are failing to educate their students. Vedder’s speech, entitled “The High Cost and Low Productivity of Our Colleges and Universities” will focus heavily on his research in the book.

Besides Vedder other guests and presenters include UNC-Wilmington professor Mike Adams, Indiana University professor Murray Sperber, Melana Zyla Vickers, and Gary Brasor among others.

Registration will begin Saturday at 8 a.m., with the first session beginning at 8:30 a.m. A luncheon will be held at noon.

Why is the NCAA silent about all those Fighting Scots?

Sep 14, 2005 ·

What if I, an American of Scots heritage and “therefore” representative of all, no matter what the rest say, were to complain about the “Fighting Scots?” It seems the NCAA would have to do something about them, right, to show equal consideration to Indians and Scots?

NCAA Committee Issues New Warnings on Offensive Mascots

Sep 1, 2005 ·

INDIANAPOLIS – A NCAA committee has issued new demands to several colleges and universities across the nation seeking justification for their continued use of offensive mascots, NCAA officials announced today. At issue is enforcement of the NCAA’s new edict against “hostile and abusive racial/ethnic/national origin mascots, nicknames or imagery,” with which schools must abide in order to have eligibility to participate in NCAA postseason events.

The Executive Committee on Making Foolish Pronouncements During the Off-Season, reputed to be the NCAA’s busiest committee, initiated the latest spate of demands. Their purpose is to clarify and expand the NCAA’s position on offensive mascots, said committee head Giselda Knickertwist.

NCAA issues ban on Indian mascots

Aug 10, 2005 ·

Last week an executive committee for the National Collegiate Athletics Association decided to prohibit the use of Indian mascots and nicknames by colleges and universities participating in the organization’s postseason tournaments. The NCAA also strongly encouraged institutions to cease scheduling athletic competitions with schools who use Native American nicknames, imagery or mascots.

Grove City College Shows What Can Happen Without Title IX

Jul 14, 2005 ·

In the sports world, Title IX brings about various sets of emotions. There are those who believe the 1972 legislation – which bars discrimination based on sex at institutions receiving federal funding – has greatly increased the number of opportunities for female athletes. Others say the regulation has mostly decreased the number of opportunities for males, because schools have often dropped men’s sports to achieve equality.

It is instructive to look at the experience of one college that doesn’t have to abide by Title IX’s mandates. Grove City College, a private college in northwest Pennsylvania, does not accept federal funding therefore is exempt from federal regulations. Nevertheless, the school provides ample opportunities for men and women to compete in NCAA Division III level sports.

The story begins with the decision of Grove City’s administration to challenge the applicability of Title IX and its burdensome reporting requirements in the early 1980s. When the school failed to supply the documents demanded by the Department of Education, the DOE filed suit to stop Grove City students from receiving federal financial aid (Basic Education Opportunity Grants).