May 20, 2008

Vanderbilt U. Unveils $50-Million Project to Upgrade Athletics Facilities

The first phase of a multimillion-dollar effort to upgrade Vanderbilt University’s athletics facilities is under way, the university announced today. The five-year, $50-million program will improve the basketball locker rooms, renovate the football stadium, and expand the baseball field, among other improvements.

Such major spending contrasts with the approach taken by E. Gordon Gee during his seven years as Vanderbilt’s chancellor, when he was a leader in collegiate-sports reform. When he announced, in 2003, what many saw as a radical overhaul of Vanderbilt’s athletics department, Mr. Gee drew admiration from some national observers of college athletics and ridicule from others, who joked that Vanderbilt athletes would share court and field time with physical-education students.

Mr. Gee, who left Vanderbilt for Ohio State University last year, attempted to integrate Commodore athletes more fully into daily campus life, by adopting such ideas as assigning athletes faculty mentors and designing a study-abroad program that more athletes could participate in. “I love college sports,” Mr. Gee told The Chronicle in 2003. “However, institutions of higher learning are in danger of being torn apart by the ‘win at all costs’ culture we have created for ourselves.”

Bobby Johnson, the head coach of Vanderbilt’s football team, said in a news release that the upgrades would help with recruiting and preparing for games.

A top administrator agreed. “When these upgrades are completed, every Vanderbilt student-athlete will enjoy a direct benefit. As well, our reputation as a national competitor in all of our sports, including basketball, baseball, and football, will also be strengthened,” said the vice chancellor for university affairs and student athletics, David Williams II. —Kate Moser

Comments

1. Go ‘Dores!

   — Renie    May 20, 03:50 PM    #

2. Chancellors, and their ideas, come and go, but athletics departments remain forever.

   — Dexter Alexander    May 20, 04:20 PM    #

3. Thank heaven Gee is gone.

   — T Carroll    May 20, 04:50 PM    #

4. I trust that Vanderbilt has committed to making the upgrades as ‘green’ as possible.

   — B    May 20, 04:59 PM    #

5. The contrast between Gordon Gee’s comments and those of David Williams II is striking: no mention at all by the latter of how this money will actually contribute to enhancing his university’s mission as an institution of higher education, just that it will make some teams more nationally competitive. So, what is the value of that to higher education? It sounds like an entertainment business to me.

   — Sandy Thatcher    May 20, 05:37 PM    #

6. Actually, collegiate athletics creates an environment that helps attract the best & brightest students. Applications increase dramatically after a school has a championship season.

   Also, Vanderbilt competes with true ‘student-athletes’ and their graduation rate is among the very best nationally.

   In addition, athletics keep alumni engaged. I’m a prime example. I graduated from Vandy forty-four (44) years ago and I’m more involved than ever with Vanderbilt.
   Thanks to the internet, I can live 400 miles away but still keep up with what’s happening with the school and with the athletic teams.

   And ‘B’, the improvements won’t be “green”, but they’ll be Black & Gold…with a little classic brick mixed in.

   GO ‘DORES!

   — VanDSIRROM    May 20, 10:49 PM    #

7. Gee was one of the few university presidents to show some courage. Sure, applications increase when a team wins a football or basketball championship, but how often does that happen? Does Vandy need more applicants? No. What Vandy— and other institutions—need is to reprioritize. Athletics are important, but not to the extent that they increase the problems facing higher education. Athletics should enhance the academic parts. Unfortunately, more and more, they serve as nothing more than an embarrassing billboard for the institution.

   — mpr    May 21, 09:32 AM    #

8. If it were called performing arts instead of athletics, everything would be OK.

   — lwf    May 21, 11:51 AM    #

9. Maybe some one ought to look at Vandy athletics before Mr. Gee.. Long before Chancellor Gee Vanderbilt Athletics reported to a Vice President for Student Life and Athletics [the VP was a tenured prof of English] and also look at the graduation rate of athletes and their participation in campus life before [as well as after] Mr.
   Gee. Vanderbilt has a very long tradition of making sure
   student athletes are students first… graduate and participate in campus life.

   — jm    May 21, 05:44 PM    #

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