Upset over the ever-increasing commercialization and expense of college sports, a University of Missouri professor says it’s time to fight back.
And he’s enlisting the help of his counterparts at Kansas University and other Big 12 Conference schools.
“There’s a perception among the faculty here that sports are taking over,” said Dr. Gordon Christensen, chairman of MU’s faculty council.
“We have two coaches — basketball and football — who are making more than a million dollars a year. At the same time, we have internationally recognized faculty in the fine arts who are making $50,000 — that’s one-twentieth of what the coaches are making, and yet they’re every bit the expert in their field as the coaches are in theirs,” said Christensen, a professor of internal medicine. “It’s ridiculous.”
Christensen has circulated a resolution, urging university presidents and chancellors to put academics ahead of athletics. MU’s faculty council passed the resolution in September.
“We want to see what we can do to get this adopted by all the faculties in the Big 12,” Christensen said.
Three KU professors will join their Big 12 counterparts next week in Kansas City to see what can be done to tame — or at least contain — the beast that critics say big-time college sports has become.
Schools in other athletic conferences — including the Big 10, Pacific 10 and Southeastern Conference — already have passed resolutions similar to the one approved at MU.
KU’s faculty senate has yet to vote on the resolution.
“We’ve discussed it, and we agreed in principle with most of what it says,” said Susan Twombly, a member of KU’s SenEx. “But some of the issues need clarification.”
Twombly and professors Don Green and John Ferraro will represent KU at the Kansas City conference.
“Things are getting out of hand — there’s no question about that,” said Ferraro, who represents the KU Medical School faculty on the KU Athletic Corp. board. “The question now is, ‘OK, what can be done about it?’ And at this point, I have to say I don’t know.”
Ferraro and Twombly met Monday with KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway to discuss the issue.
“Faculties across the country are expressing concern about the so-called ‘arms race’ in collegiate athletics,” Hemenway said. “It’s a legitimate issue, one that’s perfectly appropriate for the faculty to discuss.”
Like Twombly, Hemenway said he needed more information before endorsing the resolution.
It challenges universities to require more accountability from their athletic departments, including public disclosure of their finances. It also calls for:
Hemenway questioned both the practicality and relevancy of some of the recommendations.
“Ask yourself what basketball season would look like if it was confined to a single semester,” Hemenway said.
And KU already strives to tie its athletic scholarships to graduation rather than on-court performance, he said.
“It’s my understanding that the recommendation on scholarships is in there because some coaches somewhere have tried to run off student-athletes because their grants-in-aid are for only one year and they can bring in somebody else,” Hemenway said. “Well, that’s never been done at KU and, to my knowledge, it’s never been done at a major university.
“And I’d add that when (KU) eliminated the men’s swim team (2001), we guaranteed the continuation of all those athletes’ scholarships,” he said.
Hemenway is chairman of the NCAA Division I governing board, which recently enacted reforms aimed at stopping athletes from taking courses that allow them to remain academically eligible but have little to do with degree requirements.
At Missouri, faculty members said, there is too much evidence of what happens with unbridled athletics programs.
Christensen said MU faculty were upset by construction of a $75 million, 15,000-seat basketball arena even though the Hearnes Center is barely 30 years old and not yet paid for.
“And then there’s the embarrassment of Ricky Clemons,” Christensen said, referring to the MU point guard who was kicked off the basketball team after disobeying terms of his release from jail to a halfway house. He had been jailed after pleading guilty to charges related to domestic assault of his girlfriend.
Clemons’ girlfriend has said he was given clothes, cash and improper academic help, allegations denied by MU officials.
Christensen said he and other faculty were especially galled to learn that Clemons had been declared academically eligible after reportedly completing 27 credit hours of course work — that’s almost two semesters worth of credit — through correspondence courses offered by a small college in Idaho.
“You see all this going, on and you can’t help but wonder about the effect it has on academics,” Christensen said.
MU Chancellor Richard Wallace has fully endorsed the resolution.
“When he saw it, he said, ‘Yeah, this is exactly what we want to be doing,'” Christensen said.
Much of next week’s Kansas City meeting will be spent laying groundwork for a possible summit of concerned faculty from across the Big 12.
MU Faculty Council resolution