TO THE EDITOR:
On Tuesday in the Sonja Haynes Stone Center, the Friends of the Library sponsored a panel discussion titled “Big-Time College Sports: What Needs to Change?” During the introductions, the event was described as an opportunity to openly discuss the complex issues surrounding intercollegiate athletics. Indeed, the university should function as the primary forum to discuss society’s “complex” issues.
Unfortunately, however, the issues presented at this forum were not treated as complex but rather as clearly defined matters of right and wrong.
A complex issue is by definition one that involves multiple, often competing, perspectives. Yet at this forum, the panel represented one perspective: Big-time college sports are immoral.
Even the one panelist who, reportedly, has argued elsewhere that college sports aren’t “altogether bad” never got around to explaining such. The panel unequivocally condemned Division I basketball and football, without any hint of dissent. So much for “complex.”
Intercollegiate athletics is no doubt a complex issue that raises questions about the purpose of higher education in America. The fact is that the American university has always had a more comprehensive mission than academics alone. Yet this fact was never mentioned at the panel discussion.
Future discussions of college sports should not be limited to those who have no direct experience with student athletes. Athletics administrators and others who work in intercollegiate athletics should be able to represent their perspectives. After all, to ignore some perspectives in favor of others would be to compromise the integrity of the university.
Bradley Bethel
Academic Support Program for Student Athletes
