in this Spokesman-Review article: EWU budget plan cuts $13.3 million, raises tuition.
UPDATE: Unfortunately most of the entire article remains walled off behind the S-R's subscriber-only service. I can tell you that 7 of 11 paragraphs in the entire article were dedicated to points made by your humble correspondent.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
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Thanks, Dr. Buchanan. Sincerely.
ReplyDeletePerhaps your college experience found athletics unneccessary or trite, but for most of us supporting our school's athletics programs was an integral part of the college experience.
ReplyDeleteOur football program meant a lot more to me than having a geneticist.
Your opinions do not reflect the majority at EWU. Whether you are just turning up the rhetoric to save your job or just part of a larger anti-athletics movement, please note that the taxpayer ultimately foots the bill. I, for one, am a taxpayer who sees more value in football scholarships than I do in an environmental sciences professor with an infalted value of self-worth!
I can assure you, my donations to EWU will go to zero if football is cut. I won't be the only one, I promise you that.
ReplyDeleteThe economy sucks for everyone. Why should one person's department be free from cuts while another person's department (athletics) gets cut out entirely? That seems fair to the athletic department and the student-athletes on scholarship...
ReplyDeleteI know a lot of very successful people who probably wouldn't have gone to college had it not been for football (or other athletic scholarships). It is a shame that these opportunities are thinning all over the state. it is also a shame that elitist academics view these same people as neaderthals who aren't worthy of "their" college experience.
Shame... EWU is all in this together...
Perhaps EWU could cut costs further by eliminating the environmental science program. Your thoughts, professor?
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that suffers when athletics are eliminated is diversity. This is especially true where football is concerned. Intercollegiate athletics enrich a university community in many ways, and narrow-minded, stereotypical views of student-athletes are outdated, and ill-informed. The level of committment, and effort required of collegiate football players should be used as an inspiration to others.
ReplyDeleteI guess you are one of those nut bags that say the holocaust never happened too! The world and colleges and universities revolve around more than this little concept you have developed in your little mind! Don't you have some rocks to play with or something!
ReplyDeleteI don't remember anyone saying that athletes are neanderthals or are not deserving of attending the university, although I find it strange that people can think that anything other than academics should take precedence at a institution of learning. This college experience people keep parroting is probably one of the worst arguments I've heard for keeping the programs, I'm a student and the only experience I want is a quality education so I can barter that for a career, football has nothing to do with that goal. I think it's time everyone reevaluated their priorities a bit and decide what is more important watching/playing football or gaining a quality education.
ReplyDeleteChris throws like a girl.
ReplyDeleteYour not far off, I ran track and cross country when I was in H.S. until I messed up my knee. These days I'm happy climbing mountains. Although I'm not sure what that has to do with anything...
ReplyDeleteWait! I say lets keep the football program! After all, look at all it provides for the community. More concussions lead to more doctors. More torn knees lead to more physical therapists. The need for better helmets mean there is a need for a better chemist to create a better plastic. More broken bones lead to more orthopaedic surgeons. The list is endless. Oh, what a revalation!! There may even be a need for an environmental scientist to determine the environmental impact of a new 70,000 seat stadium to be built (at the tax payers expense no doubt - don't you worry tax payers). My ultimate favorite would be the geologist who finds the metal and oil rich deposits that provide for the weights that make them strong, or the engine in your car, or the oil in your tank, or the lead in your pencil,....(is that last one too much of a stretch---I'm assuming an opposable thumb).
ReplyDeleteI do believe that several of the posts above provide perfect illustration for why academics should be granted more funding, and athletics less.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of EWU is to provide support in academic endeavors first and foremost. Athletics is and always will be secondary as it is an "extra". It is that second slice of cake that you want, but don't really need.
A comment was made by the president insinuating that attending a football game has somehow made me a better person and a better student. Really? The support of my fellow students and the knowledge imparted to me by excellent professors has done more for me than any football game could do. In fact, the only thing the one football game I attended did for me was take precious time away from studying.
I would hope that supporters of EWU would be more willing to donate time and money for what the University was intended for, academics, rather than something it doesn't need. That there are people who would support athletics over academics at a university such as this simply boggles the mind.
It is interesting to note that nearly every institution that ranks among the top 100 universities in the United States also supports division I athletics.
ReplyDeleteWhy anyone would argue that top flight academics and top flight athletics are somehow mutally exclusive is beyond me. In fact, they complement one another perfectly.
I don't think anyone supporting the athletic programs of EWU are arguing that athletics needs to be supported while academics are ignored, but itappears the converse is dead-on. Many academic "purists" seem to feel athletics serve no purpose; or at least no purpose at a university.
As for the last comment before mine- about the "one football game I attended took precious time away from studying"-- Dude, get a grip. Seriously, college simply wasn't that hard. I graduated with honors and had no trouble finding time for football and fraternizing. College is about life experience, not just lectures and tests.
I would point out that most of those athletics programs make money for their university, if our program made money then you wouldn't see all this 'groundswell' for the academics program to but cut.
ReplyDeleteIn Eastern's case I would say a top flight athletics program is contrary to a quality education when we are missing key professors in several majors.
I have to work to pay for college, I don't have time for much else than school work, job, and sleep. I got plenty of life experience over the last 5 years since I graduated, and that's why I'm back in school, life's a bitch without an education and right now that's all I care about, the rest can go to hell. I realize I'm more of an extremist when I say this, but I get mad whenever I see the university spending money on anything extra, if they are going to raise my tuition 14% and cut the heart out of academics, I don't want to see them spending even a dime on those damn concerts they had last week, or any of the extra 'events' that seem to contribute to this vaunted college experience everyone seems to love.
Actually, Chris, no most athletic programs do not make money for their university directly.
ReplyDeleteThe last time I checked, only 12 NCAA Division I programs were actually profitable. However, many programs actually create revenues because the business end of the athletic program is only one facet of their moneymaking. The larger, but often ignored part, is the tax-exempt "association" that receives donations to the university. This money cannot, obviously, be factored into the equation as it is by definition a donation- not ticket revenue or merchadising.
When only taxable revenues are reviewed, very few programs are actually in the black. The list of profitable programs is a list of usual suspects: Texas, Michigan, Ohio State, Tennessee, Florida, etc... Most, or nearly all, of the remaining programs use football (typically the largest revenue producing sport with a lot of margin to spare) monies to support the Title IX programs that are a pure expense but all athletic programs are legally required to maintain.
Therefore, athletics is not about bringing money to the university- ever. It certainly brings prestige and publicity. It also brings diversity; not just ethnicity, but diversity of experience, talent, and opinion. In fact, I'd argue that no program at Eastern even comes close to attracting people from a wider spectrum than does EWU athletics.
It makes people like me cringe when others talk of cutting athletics programs or disproportionately cutting athletic funding. While the intentions sometimes are no more than cost-cutting, they are sometimes an end-around towards whitewashing an organziation.
-Jason
ReplyDeleteFirst I want to thank you for your well reasoned response.
I was mostly referring to football programs when I spoke of programs making money, I'm sorry for not being clear, and I guess I don't understand why donations can't be included in your sums, but I think that's beyond the point were all trying to make. I understand that athletics are an important part of college for bringing people together, although I'm not sure how much prestige they bring the university when our coaches break the rules and bring sanctions upon the program. But again, I don't think that's the point either.
The point is, I attend this university to get a quality education, no more, no less. The cuts the legislation is enacting, along with the huge tuition hike essentially tells me that I'm paying more for less. Due to this I strongly believe that non necessary programs, ie anything that is not related to academics or maintaining the university should be under extreme scrutiny. Are athletics necessary to the mission of the school? No. is maintaining a full staff of professors to better teach their subjects, offer more classes, and smaller class sizes necessary to the mission? Yes.
I don't think that athletics are completely without value, just that right now, academics has far more value, and I also think that if large cuts are made to athletics that there should be a sunset clause attached to it, to ensure the issue is revisited in better times to return our athletics program to what it once was.
"It is also a shame that elitist academics view these same people as neaderthals who aren't worthy of "their" college experience."
ReplyDeleteYou know judging from some of the comments on this blog post, is there any reason NOT to view them that way? I mean really, invoking the holocaust? Saying someone throws like a girl and that we should cut the environmental science program? Congrats on pushing your points across guys...I'm totally convinced we should save athletics with arguments like those....
Athletics for a university is mostly an advertising tool. Take away the advertising and enrollment goes down. When enrollment goes down, grant money decreases, and ultimately, the university loses its stature. College athletics, football in particular, is a way to get a universities name out to people who wouldn’t otherwise think of attending EWU. Cutting football from an athletic department is like cutting off your foot before running a marathon. Good luck EWU Football with the small minded people on campus who think there intellectuals.
ReplyDeleteI doubt most of the people who attend EWU do so because they heard of the school through the football program.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, Mike should have used "they're" instead of "there" in his last sentence.
An interesting report on how college football (and basketball) is used to support the athletic budget.
ReplyDeletehttp://media.www.dailyemerald.com/media/storage/paper859/news/2009/05/27/Sports/The-Art.Of.Breaking.Even-3744219.shtml
"I doubt most of the people who attend EWU do so because they heard of the school through the football program.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, Mike should have used "they're" instead of "there" in his last sentence."
I sure as hell didn't attend because of the football program. Frankly it feels like high school football at those games. The only sport I've even come close to enjoying here has been hockey...and oh look...they're a club team. If I want football, I'd go to a higher division school with a bigger budget and 40,000 regularly attend home games. I came to EWU because it was cheap, and being that it still is one of the cheapest if not THE cheapest in the state, I'm fairly sure most everyone else came here for that reason as well.
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ReplyDeleteWhoa there, the holocaust? That's a bit of a stretch.
ReplyDeletehey, to all the people that don't go to ewu and think that football actually makes money at ewu. football loses money with its program, so cut it. let me ask those sports fans this? do football players save lives with their throwing skills? NO!!! GENETICISTS DO!!! so keep on trucking Buchanan no matter what these meat heads say.
ReplyDeleteAthletics supporters = meatheads?
ReplyDeleteFootball is great because of the concussions?
An incorrect use of the word "there?"
Some of you act like a football player stole your girlfriend or something. The vitriol against those involved in athletics is ridiculous.
No one from the football program is suggesting that academics be cut from the university, only that the programs of the university co-exist. The problem is that the environmental sciences department actually wants to remove the football players from the university! That is a pretty big difference of opinion.
For all of you who don't think athletics help market a university, you are flat wrong. Anyone who was in the Spokanea-rea prior to the late 90s will remember Gonzaga as a struggling law school that could only attract rich washouts from California who had no other academic options. However, when their basketball program got to winning, suddenly interest in the school shot up exponentially. The same can be true for the University of Montana, which was a compost heap prior to 1990. Investments in the athletic programs have contributed (largely) to the fact that they attract more out-of-state students than any other school in the Big Sky. Darn near everywhere in the country, you can pair the success of the academic programs with the athletic programs; a good university fosters both.
The only minor exceptions to this rule are the Ivy League schools and universities that cater more to post-grad work. However, NO ONE is going to confuse Harvard, Yale, MIT, or Cal Tech with Eastern Washington. And even in the Ivy League, football rivalries are bigger than one might imagine-- I've been to a Harvard/ Yale football game and it was really comparable to a big college football game except with really rich alumni.
Eastern without D-I athletics is no better than Central or Western Washington. If some of you think we are just a low-budget university that can't hang with the Weber State's, Montana's, and Northern Arizona's of the world, than so be it. I, for one, am concerned that so many Easterner's feel our university should just resign to being another directional state school in Washington.
with the way this school is run, I hate to say it, but I'm considering transferring to wwu. At least they have their priorities in order.
ReplyDeleteRight.... a university that blew $26mm on a hockey arena without even having an intercollegiate hockey team now plays the "we need to slash and burn our programs" routine.
ReplyDeleteEWU mismanaged their $$$ so badly when the economy was off-the-hook it is no surprise that we are in arrears now. Some of the things that Eastern blew money on are downright monumentally ridiculous... the $26mm hockey arena for a school with maybe 200 people who have ever ice skated before is the most obvious absurdity.
As for the argument that Mr. Buchanan is making... perhaps he should know that the football program has a better graduation rate than the environmental sciences program?
In response to the last comment, what do graduated football players go on to do besides work construction and beat their wives?
ReplyDeleteGood point on the mismanagement though, the President of the University has spent around 150K on landscaping over the last year, and is currently trying to get another 8K for add-on car port. His paid-for house has a two car garage, but he has three cars, and wants a car port.
Point-EWU Football loses money
Point-You can't graduate with a degree in football
Point-EWU football program is run by cheaters (Google list of NCAA violations), and still doesn't win
Point-EWU's roots are as a teaching college, is known internationally for it's forensics lab, and is the only college in the US that has a lab on a wildlife refuge.
Point-More students enrolled science programs than football program
I challenge anybody to make a logic-based arguement as to why the football program should be saved while the science department suffers.