Gmail - Compose Mail - stephenm.schwartz@gmail.com

There are some underlying issues with he current debate among the UW faculty about whether the football program pays its own way.

A large part of the concern reflects our commitment to serving the needs of minority kids in Washington State. . There is a wide spread belief in the minority community that the UW is only interested in kids if they have talents on the athletic field. This concern is reinforced by the very large percentage, I have read that it may be 50%, of the AA students on campus supported by athletic scholarships.

None of this says athletic achievement should not be considered a criterion for admission. For example, athletic admissions to Harvard College end up in the top academic ranks of the school. However, this record at Harvard reflects their belief that high school athletic success is a good measure of drive to achieve in other spheres. Moreover, a real commitment by the UW to these kids would assume that once admitted, a kid's scholarships does not depend on his athletic performance.

This is a long simmering issue. Last year, I served on a a faculty committee concerned with minority students. The Athletics Department made it very clear that they work hard to see that the athletes get degrees. However, we were unimpressed with expectations of football players other than gradation. Many of these kids seem to enroll in programs whose main purpose is graduation rather than a college education. Moreover, we were told clearly that academic criteria, beyond meeting minimal; standards, were NOT important in awarding athletic scholarships.

My final worry is that the over emphasis on these professional programs comes at the expense of opportunities for students who do meet our academic criteria to compete at the college sports level.

My main issue, however, is less with reforming the program than with assuring the voters that a healthy"

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.