Date: Thu, 02 Oct 2003 23:17:41 -0700
From: Richard A Sundt <rsundt@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Subject: Response to RG guest editorial on academics vs. athletics
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3 October 2003

To: P. Lowell Bowditch, UO Senate President,
 the Faculty of the University of Oregon, and the larger
University community

From: Richard A. Sundt, Associate Professor and Head, Department of
Art History

RE: AGENDA FOR STRENGTHING ACADEMICS AT THE UNIVERSTIY OF OREGON

After the extravagance of the football lockers, this season's debut of
a marching band clad (thanks to Nike initiative) in uniforms and
helmets reminiscent of WWII military police (a most unfortunate image
for the university and one that could have been avoided if faculty had
real oversight over athletics), and more significantly, given the
consumerism and misplaced priorities that underlie the University
administration's plan to add a new sports facility on campus, I
believe the time has arrived for the FACULTY of the University of
Oregon to commit itself fully and with vigor to reforming athletics in
order to strengthen, or at least, preserve the academic mission of our
educational institution.

For too long the faculty have simply acquiesced in the policies and
programs promoted by the Administration and the Athletic Department.
Yesterday's guest editorial in the Register-Guard (2 October 2003,
section A, page 11) by David Orique raises all the right questions and
rightly points out that the Administration's position begs the real
question when it dismisses all criticism of athletic extravagance by
saying it that none of the costs involve the expenditure of state
funds. David Orique wisely asks whether the university has lost its
moral compass and its educational mission. Ordinary faculty, as well
as the deans of the various colleges and schools, need to question the
wisdom of the Administration's reliance on sports to maintain our
university afloat. To what extent does this approach (however well
intended, and I have no doubt concerning the President's good
intentions) compromise our academic values, image, and substance.
David Orique's editorial deserves careful reading and re-reading,
especially by the leadership of this university.

I propose that the Senate take the following steps:

1. Require that the Athletic Department field only the minimum number
of sports required by the NCAA in order for Oregon to maintain its
division I status. Any extra money earned by the Athletic Department
should be returned to the university to support academics.

2. Require that a percentage of the cost of tickets for Autzen games
be reserved for use by academics. The perception of the public at
large is that part of a ticket's price is going directly to support
teaching; it's time to turn that false notion into reality and get
some tangible and immediate benefits from the $25 million in state
money that the Administration has poured into sports in order to build
our present rich and slick athletic program.

3. Reconsider whether the basketball arena should be built at all.

4. Place the entire Athletic Department under faculty supervision, in
other words, taking that responsibility out of the Administration. We
have to go beyond the Vanderbilt model because at Oregon the
Administration is itself the leading promoter of the arms race. Our
university and a select group of alumni are, in fact, the parties that
set the standards of hype and expense that everyone else in the
country feels compelled to imitate for fear of losing a competitive
edge.

5. Direct the Presidential Task Force on Athletics to begin in a
serious way to confront the problems of reform, and demand that it
propose concrete solutions that can be implemented locally as well as
nationally, both immediately and in the long-term.

6. Give the Intercollegiate Athletic Committee real authority to
review and amend Athletic Department policies that affect academics
and the image of the university with the public at large. Every year,
the Senate president should provide clear guidelines and charges to
the chairperson of the committee in order to ensure the development of
policies that are in consonance with the university's mission, and
also to encourage athletic personnel to engage the process of reform
in concrete and meaningful ways within their professional circles.



disk AT/B: agenda03


Richard A. Sundt
Associate Professor and Department Head
Department of Art History
University of Oregon
Eugene,OR 97403-5229 USA
phone: 541-346-1418 or 4698; fax 541-346-3626
email: rsundt@uoregon.edu