I just graduated from college, and I can guarantee that
at least half my classmates were sometimes more concerned with how the football
team did than with whether they could explain the thematic convolutions in Great Expectations or find the rate of
flow through a wire suspended on the surface of a four-dimensional plane. (I
knew that calculus class would pay off someday.) It’s expected that students
will sometimes prefer to go out partying, stay home and relax, go to the game,
even clean the house—rather than do their homework. However, there is a growing
concern that universities themselves are absorbing this “fun stuff first,
academics second” attitude, and that it’s costing their students.
The main culprit, according to some sources, is athletic
spending. The 2013–14 annual
report of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) shows
that most colleges and universities increased their total spending on athletics
programs in the last few years, even accounting for inflation, but cut back
spending overall. In many cases, that extra money was taken from university
public works projects and research funding, although there are also plenty of
universities where academic funding was cut to make ends meet. The problem is
particularly prevalent not in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
Division I universities, but in Division II and III schools seeking to use a
refurbished athletics program to attract a larger student base, and thus to
collect more tuition fees. The problem with this
strategy, of course, is that with a larger student base comes a greater
need for academic resources of all kinds—which a smaller school is hardly in a
position to provide.
On the other hand, there are claims that it is not
athletics that represents the greatest unnecessary drain on university
resources, but administrative
costs. Where in 1975 there was 1
administrator per 84 students, now the ratio is 1 to 68; from 1 professional
staffer per 50 students, there is now 1 per 21 students. Universities rely on
heavier administrative staffing than they used to, in part because professors
no longer take on administrative jobs when not teaching, and so dedicated staff
is required to keep institutions
running on a day-to-day basis .
James
Joyner suggests that more administrators are needed because as state and
federal funding decreases, universities rely more heavily on individual
professors acquiring grants to continue their research, and the paperwork
involved in securing and keeping track of funds from a wide variety of grantors
requires a greater amount of attention than the professors themselves have to
spare.
I’d like to see the greatest amount of university
funding go to supporting professors and student resources designed for academic
success. However, I
also understand that as a degree has become more necessary for even an
entry-level job, universities need to find ways to stand out to their potential
students, and athletics is
a good way to gain attention. Administrative costs also necessarily rise with a
rising student population, although I agree that the administration of some
colleges has grown out of proportion to the size of the student body. In the
end, I hope that universities, like their students, can find a good balance
among all the vying elements that require their attention.
Did You Know?
Of
the 228 athletic departments at NCAA Division I public schools, 23 are
self-sufficient. These include departments at LSU, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oklahoma,
Penn State, Purdue and Texas, all of which do not subsidize their athletics
programs. Instead, the programs are responsible for their own costs, allowing
these universities to allocate funding elsewhere.
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