The
following email message was received by Senate President Peter Gilkey on
Tuesday November 23 1999. It was entitled as an Open Memo and is presumed
to have been intended for public distribution. Peter B Gilkey (Senate President)
From rsundt@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU
Tue Nov 23 12:46:41 1999 Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1999 12:52:55 -0800
Subject: Autzen enlargement and the University's Mission
To: pres@OREGON.UOREGON.EDUgilkey@math.uoregon.edu,
rzm@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU,
knichol@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Open Memo to the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee and the University
community
From: Richard Sundt, Art History
Re: Autzen Expansion Project and the Place of Athletics in the University
of Oregon
The Autzen Expansion Project at any cost, but more particularly at "$70-80
million" raises a number of grave issues that go to the very core of academics
everywhere in this country and the University of Oregon most especially.
Unfortunately, because of class commitments and Thanksgiving travel coming
up, I do not have time to develop fully my thoughts on the problem at hand
(particularly point 3 below), which has clearly touched a raw nerve among
the faculty, as I have come to learn during the course of this week. I
am writing this in anticipation of an upcoming meeting of the Intercollegiate
Athletic Committee. Let me enumerate at least some of the problems the
Autzen expansion poses locally and what this means in terms of the place
of athletics in a university setting, and most especially in a chronically
underfunded one such as Oregon.
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1. What I and many others find objectionable is not that some money is
going toward athletics, but that it is going for enhancement of a facility
that, whatever deficiencies it may have, is far better than the facilities
under which many of us teach. Our poor and cramped teaching environments
make it difficult for dedicated faculty to implement the University's MISSION
as stated on page 4 of the UO 1999-2000 Bulletin.
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2. Adding insult to injury is that well over half of the announced budget
of $135 million is going toward the expansion of the Autzen stadium ($70-80
million). What makes this huge bill totally unacceptable is that in no
way is it proportionately related, inversely or otherwise, to the University's
MISSION STATEMENT, which is as follows: "The university is a community
of scholars dedicated to the highest standards of academic inquiry, learning
and service. Recognizing that knowledge is the fundamental wealth of civilization,
the university strives to enrich the public that sustains it" (this is
expanded in eleven points, none of which deal with athletics although one
[to be discussed later] should be reason enough to question whether athletics
as currently exercised at this university [and elsewhere in the US as well]
really complies with the Mission Statement.)
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3. What began initially as intra-mural sports for the good of students
(both physically and mentally) has here and everywhere in the US grown
into a sports-industrial complex (as powerful as the military-industrial
complex that Eisenhower warned us about years ago). It has made prisoners
of even the most academically oriented university presidents. Certainly,
the University of Oregon cannot go it alone in bringing sense and moderation
to the overpowering and seemingly untouchable force of athletics on university
life. One cannot expect the Oregon team not to do X, when all others do
X (one particular offensive thing, if true, is that even for home games
home teams stay overnight in motels/hotels). The taming of the sports complex
has to be done by ALL university presidents and athletic associations (Pac-10
etc.) working in concert to make sure that if sports are to be part of
university life, as Americans apparently want and expect, athletics have
to be subordinate, and very much secondary, to the purpose for which universities
were initially founded. Needless to say, the situation at the University
of Oregon is very much out of line and not in conformity with its stated
MISSION. It is time for all presidents of universities to take courageous
action and bring the expansion of athletics, to the detriment of academics,
to a halt. There is plenty of room for innovation and leadership in this
area.
4. Related to number two and three above is the fact that athletics
has become so important that winning is everything and simply playing is
nothing. That the original ideals of a healthy mind and body no longer
play a role in university athletics is all too obvious. The football team
is not recruited from the pool of all university applicants, but persons
who are specifically sought out for their athletic abilities. Everyone
knows the system; I don't need to elaborate. What I do want to know is
why athletics seems to be "above the law" with regard to the 7th sub-point
in the MISSION STATEMENT: "a dedication to the principles of equality of
opportunity and freedom from unfair discrimination for all members of the
university community and an acceptance of true diversity as an affirmation
of individual identity within a welcoming community." To me this means
that all enrolled students should have an equal opportunity to try out
for a team. Maybe technically this is the case, but the recruitment drives
I hear about suggest that this is not the way it works. After all we want
to win. Other ideals have long bit the dust. I don't expect we can change
American culture with respect to academics, but I think we have to keep
things from going further out control, especially now that universities
are being reduced to businesses. Playing sports is for the elite few, at
least so it seems to me.
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5. If $70-80 million have been earmarked by donors solely for the Autzen
enhancements, then the University of Oregon should honor these wishes.
If, however, there is flexibility with respect to donors' intentions, then
I believe it is incumbent upon the University administration to reduce
the above amount, and to direct it to projects that are part of Oregon's
stated MISSION. This would help restore confidence in the current administration.
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6. In the case that all the money donated has to be spent on the Autzen
enlargement, then I think it is only appropriate, that no public money
be spent on this project, and if that means that the athletic department
has to scale down, so be it; this would put them in the same boat as the
rest of us . The funds for this project should be 85% from private funds,
10% from stadium revenue, and NOT 5% from the sale of state bonds, which
means ultimately public money being used for non-academic purposes (see
the Register-Guard of 16 Nov 99 for figures and breakdown). Agreeing to
forego the 5% would be a step in the right direction, however miniscule
the gesture.
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7. I know that the Athletic Department had a debt of several million some
years ago. Does it still have it, how much, and who has paid for it? And
now we are expected to swallow a 70-80 million dollar expansion project
when we cannot keep academics afloat? These are not rhetorical questions.
I would like to have the answers. Maybe I will be pleasantly surprised.
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8. One of the arguments for supporting athletics in a big way is that it
is a means of attracting donors to the university. Indeed, some have pledged
millions for Autzen. All this helps the general athletic program, including
women sports. Fine. But this is all supporting athletics. I have been led
to believe that all this ultimately spills over to academics. If so, how
much? What are the figures, and are they really significant enhancements
to the academic mission? I have also heard that a winning team aids general
student recruitment. Given our several winning seasons and the investments
already made in our sports facilities, I wonder why we have a dip in student
enrollment this year. I am waiting to be convinced that sports is the answer
to our survival as an academic institution. As undergraduate advisor for
my department, I have yet have to hear a student or parent say that they
have chosen Oregon or any other institution on the basis their athletic
prowess. So much for the myth that having large-scale sports programs for
the elite few helps university enrollments.
Final Comment:
I am too much a realist to think we can abolish big-time athletics at
this and other colleges. I do think that the time has come to put some
controls on sports and that University presidents and athletic organizations
need to take the lead in this process. Something has to be done in order
to ensure that the academic mission of this and other institutions of higher
learning are not trampled by concerns that are external to the purposes
for which universities were established.
Richard A. Sundt. Associate Professor, Department of Art History, University
of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-5229 USA, PHONE: 541-346-4698, FAX: 541-346-3626,
rsundt@oregon.uoregon.edu
Web page spun on 28 November 1999 by
Peter
B Gilkey 202 Deady Hall, Department of Mathematics
at the
University of Oregon,
Eugene OR 97403-1222, U.S.A. Phone 1-541-346-4717 Email:peter.gilkey.cc.67@aya.yale.edu
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