UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham has no problem with a recently released faculty statement about the relationship between athletics and academics.
That’s because the athletic department already follows the faculty group’s three “core principles,” he said.
An informal group of faculty released a statement Feb. 17 naming institutional openness, educational responsibility and mission consistency as principles the University should follow in the pursuit of athletic success.
“At North Carolina we do that very well,” said Cunningham, who became athletic director in November.
And for now, the faculty group’s only goal is to start discussion on the issue, a plan the athletic department also supports, Cunningham said.
“We’d like to talk about governance nationally and the role North Carolina plays in sharing that,” he said.
The authors of the statement said they will re-evaluate their plans after a UNC-sponsored panel on Feb. 28 entitled “Big-Time College Sports: What Needs to Change?”
“We want the large philosophical and structural issues surrounding college athletics to be on the front burner of the University for months or years,” said Jay Smith, associate chairman of the history department, who helped draft the statement.
Associate professor of maternal and child health Lewis Margolis, who also helped draft the statement, said there has been more tension between the academic and athletic issues of students based on changes in the athletic world.