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Shop Talk: U. of Iowa Art Building Will Reopen With Hidden Floodgates

January 3, 2012, 8:51 am

By Lawrence Biemiller

Airliewood photoAfter raising $750,000 to meet a donor’s $3-million challenge, Rust College became the new owner of an 1858 Gothic landmark, Airliewood, which housed Gen. Ullysses S. Grant and his troops during the Civil War. The historically black college, located in Holly Springs, Miss., plans to use the 9.5-acre property as a museum, event venue, and guest house. (Photo by Jack E. Boucher, Historic American Buildings Survey)

• Holl’s Art Building West Is Set to Reopen 3 Years After U. of Iowa Flooding

• Study Finds That Sustainable Construction Poses Dangers for Workers

• $10-Million Overhaul Begins at LBJ Presidential Library

• Binghampton U. Plan to Kill Deer in Preserve Requires Environmental Review, Judge Rules

 

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  • 22079340

    Yeah, right!  As Derek Bok wrote in his book “Universities in the Marketplace,” intercollegiate athletics is one of the major areas that so clearly demonstrates that higher education institutions will compromise their most basic values for money.  The hue and cry around this latest incident will die down and the exploitation of the kids who make the billions of dollars will continue unabated

  • Socratease2

    I believe that many people and organizations in this country do and will compromise “basic values” (whatever those are) for money (Enron, Savings and Loan scandal., etc.) I wouldn’t get too starry eyed about the NCAA leading the pack in this regard. I would direct a lot more rage towards the government and mortgage industry if you are keen on exposing greed that actually hurts society. Very few athletic programs make a profit, and except for that handful of schools, athletic departments are all “loss leaders.”  By that I mean university sports (basketball and FB primarily) function like Bangladesh Airlines, the government can’t afford to actually run a profitable airline and loses a ton every year,  but it does get Bangladesh direct “name recognition” and keeps a buzz going that a functioning country named Bangladesh exists. Essentially it is the same theory as all advertising: “We have no idea if advertising works but we are too damned scared to stop just in case it does.” Mark Emmert uses the analogy of athletics as a university’s “front porch” that attracts public attention. Anyway, there are billions of dollars involved in the college sport enterprise but most schools run in the red not in the black. These new conference TV deals may change the profit landscape some I imagine but not sure to what extent yet.

  • Socratease2

     Mr. Vedder, please tell us more about this “threshold of public indignation” and how it might operate to spur reform. If you think college sports is going to generate an “Occupy the practice complex” movement…well, I would imagine you understand that is not going to happen. What about this sports and celebrity culture do you think is going to change?  You pull out all the familiar cliches to indict the horror of college sports, but as with others it seems you doth protest too much. Yes, we can all point to the Ohio State or Miami case and now Penn State (though I don’t see this as an athletics story I see it as a crime that happened in a university training facility) and suddenly the sky is falling in. What do the numbers actually show? Out of all DI and DII (we’ll leave DIII alone for momemt) schools, what percentage of them have on-going scandal issues or have committed horrible breaches of morals,ethics and integrity? If something is “greiviously wrong” with college sports then you need to do more than pull up a few anacedotal and high profile cases. We have all heard of them. What percentage of schools have to be deemed “positive” programs before you will see college sports as acceptable, 30%, 50 % 80%? Why condem the schools that do things right and, as you say, can create positive growth and learning experinces for students. I understand there is a need for dealing with increasing “commercialism” and you put forth some interesting ideas but this money generated from FB amd BB also makes it possible for universities to have 20-25 other male and female sports that allow students to truly have the authentic college experience everyone is so concerned about. Pull the entire plug on revenue sports and you have eliminated all women’s sports, also severely decreased the number of minority students on campus (but who cares, right?) and ended an important component of student life and alumni affairs.  There is a definite cost/benefit analysis to be made here…or we could just get all worked up that colleges might be trying to create profits (which they aren’t, they are mostly losing money) and we all know that the United States of America is dedicated to promoting the values of restraint and non-attachment to the material world. I don’t know where these colleges get the idea that greed, over-consumption and rampannt materialsim are acceptable in this society. Must be too much Sesame Street viewing.

  • graddirector

    Well, I am still baffled that universities have sports teams.  The only reasonable argument I have ever been given is to keep alumni connected to the institution so that they will continue to donate, although that does not work too well since the cost seems higher than the benefit.  

    I will take issue with one statement above although I largely agree with the remainder of Dr. Vedder’s essay.

    He stated “The sad thing is that college sports do teach many kids discipline,
    leadership skills, teamwork, loyalty, confidence, and many other
    desirable things.”

    However, that is not college sports that teach those things, that is elementary  and high school sports.  The only athletes that ever get to play college sports are those who have excelled at a high level in high school and before, and already have those traits.  Unfortunately though, those skills are mis-directed into athletics instead of academics, so that academics seem to always suffer (even for the volley ball, track and other teams) just because college level competition is so time consuming in regard to practice and travel.  I seem to constantly advise students about careers who have damaged their short term potential due to an over focus on athletics to the detriment of their grades/research experience.

    It seems to me that college athletics  are directly counter to our mission as an educational institution if we are damaging some of our most motivated students.

  • rtmyers

    To have reform you must destroy the” head of the snake” which is the NCAA.  I have the DI manual and they have 426 pages of what you cannot do and it is rife with contradictions.  Athletics is an extra-curricular entity and should be so.  Athletes should be students first and foremost.  There is so much manipulation to keep kids eligible it is a crime.

    The Penn State abomination is an example of how far we have “crashed.”  This is like Rome and we are burning with fires everywhere.  Only 4 DI colleges have not been sanctioned at some point in their football programs?  “Is there a problem?”  I think so!!

  • http://nathaniel-campbell.blogspot.com/ Nathaniel M. Campbell

    I’ll add to the list of disturbing cases a reminder of last year’s incident at Notre Dame, when a St. Mary’s College student took her own life because her accusations of sexual assault against a Notre Dame football player weren’t taken seriously. He was never punished, never even removed from playing.

  • droslovinia

    I agree with most of what you say here, but I am concerned that you are missing a larger picture. Do you really believe that college sports is the only arena in which such things happen?  Even on university campuses? Surely, you’re not that blind, and assuming that you’re not, how is one to take this other than an attempt to use a terrible tragedy as a soapbox for a deeply felt antipathy for that oxymoron called “college athletics?”

  • elyria

    droslovinia  said: “‘I agree with most of what you say here, but I am concerned that you are missing a larger picture. Do you really believe that college sports is the only arena in which such things happen?  Even on university campuses? Surely, you’re not that blind, and assuming that you’re not, how is one to take this other than an attempt to use a terrible tragedy as a soapbox for a deeply felt antipathy for that oxymoron called ‘college athletics?’”
    Speaking as someone who has been a compliance officer at several DI universities, I can tell you that while things happen in all “arenas” of these institutions, athletics is the one and only part of the university (other than, in some schools, the president’s office) where it’s impossible to gain any kind of cooperation to achieve compliance. My experience is that they refuse to participate in harassment prevention training or learn about reporting requirements, and no one in university leadership is willing to hold them accountable. 

    We can’t hope that anyone will get rid of college athletics, but perhaps as a result of the Penn State lesson they will change their attitudes—if only briefly—about the need for them to accept this information.

  • elyria

    Speaking as someone who has been a compliance officer at several DI universities, I can tell you that while things happen in all “arenas” of these institutions, athletics is the one and only part of the university (other than, in some schools, the president’s office) where it’s impossible to gain any kind of cooperation to achieve compliance. My experience is that they refuse to participate in harassment prevention training or learn about reporting requirements, and no one in university leadership is willing to hold them accountable. 

    We can’t hope that anyone will get rid of college athletics, but perhaps as a result of the Penn State lesson they will change their attitudes—if only briefly—about the need for them to accept this information.

  • 11237108

    “. . .the sheer number of scandals and wrongdoing make it very clear that
    something grievously is wrong with big-time college sports in America.” Just noticing it in sports? Really???? There is something wrong with a nation that sits in judgment of human rights issues in other nations but has NOT prioritized ZERO tolerance of the victimization of and violence towards women and children. Only in sports? No. Victimization and violence is pervasive everywhere, including all strata of rank, economic status, religion, and ethnicity, in this country. To think “it doesn’t happen or can’t happen here” is folly. History has debunked that myth. Public outrage? You bet. It is about time that the old, white establishment is put on notice. Zero tolerance.

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