UNC athletics money a good investment
The following is a Counterpoint.
By John Dykers, Jr.
I noticed that my friend Rosemary Roberts got upset because the UNC Educational Foundation (Rams Club) raised $51 million in fiscal year 2006-2007 and the general fund only took in six times as much, $312 million. Of the $51 million, remember that $8 million went to the general fund for scholarships.
Forty-three million dollars is a lot of money to spend on staff and facilities, and a transparent accounting is certainly appropriate. But before we get indignant about coaches' salaries being higher than the average professor's, we should recognize that coaches spend a great deal more time and have a great deal more influence on each student under their care than does the average professor.
Only the best should hold those positions. Top-notch football and basketball have certainly become as complex as chess and biochemistry. Having participated in all four, I can vouch for that from personal experience.
Many who consider themselves primarily intellectuals or academics resent athletics, but the ancients reminded us, "Mens sana in corpore sano" ("a sound mind in a sound body").
The enthusiasm for the university as a whole that is generated by sports excellence is well documented. We should appreciate athletics and academics as complementary, and I have proposed the following inscription for the donors’ board at the new Ernie Williamson Athletics Center, which will house the UNC Athletics Office and the Rams Club: "Educators (coaches) must usher each generation to the edge of knowledge where colleagues (teammates) find faith, hope, effort, success, confidence, trust, love and civilization. The edge of knowledge is always moving and learning is a lifetime adventure." Learning how to work/play together as a team is important in all aspects of life.
I've given $1.5 million worth of uncompensated medical care and $600,000 worth of continuing education to the community. Unfortunately, I could only give less than a 20th of that to the Rams Club, but please let me do so and have a little fun. I've got a couple of extra tickets to the football game and you can go with us.
The writer lives in Siler City.
Comments (1)
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I really have no problem with the College Athletics... except I sense - and have heard - that many get chewed up and spit out. Those that can, do well - Gerry Ford seems a good example - but considering the sacrifices the more average player makes (how can you really learn under today's football schedule .. ), and considering many get in more as good players than good students .. I think at some point the athlete is owed that education.
So I propose... for every year you make the team, the university owes you another year of college, free from the grid-iron. This will diminish the pool of unemployed beer salesmen, but might also present opportunities for perennially unemployable "communications" majors.
Posted on November 8, 2007 5:06 AM