The conference was the first in a series sponsored by the James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence and directed by a committee of undergraduates representing academic scholarship programs at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Speakers at the conference focused on the economic aspect of intercollegiate athletics, describing increased university spending on athletic facilities as an arms race that puts growing pressure on teams to win at all costs.
"It' s one thing to have added seats, but the only way that investment begins to pay off is if the team wins," said Andrew Zimbalist, an author and an economics professor at Smith College in Massachusetts and the conference's keynote speaker. "The drive to win gets stronger and stronger."
Members of the Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a group formed a decade ago to study college athletics and their effects on higher education, said rising costs of coaches' salaries and capital improvements have driven many athletic programs into debt.
"The perception is that there' s still this bottomless pit of money waiting to be allocated out," said Doug Dibbert, president of the General Alumni Association and a member of the Knight Commission. "But there are very few institutions that are operating in the black."
Other members of the panel, included UNC-CH administrators, faculty and student athletes, spoke in favor of UNC-CH' s efforts to maintain the integrity of the University's athletic program through cooperation between the Department of Athletics and other departments.
"When we as a department find we have needs, we look internally," said UNC-CH Director of Athletics Dick Baddour. "We see these joint relationships as keeping us in balance."
But Judy White, UNC-CH professor of allied health sciences, said she was concerned about the increased pressure and time constraints placed on student athletes, which she said often limits their academic choices, such as their major.
"I'm very concerned with the experience student athletes have on campus," White said. "They shouldn't be penalized by the pressure to win."
