And she couldn’t be more thrilled.

From the Murray State University newspaper:

… Murray State intercollegiate athletics expenses rose by $421,967 from 2008 to 2009 resulting in the highest amount in University history to $4.9 million.

On behalf of the [university Senate Finance] committee, which consists of six faculty members, [Winfield] Rose recommended to the Board of Regents “… we find the size of this subsidy and its growth inappropriate. … We further encourage the President and the Board of Regents to freeze the athletic subsidy at its present level immediately and to eliminate it totally over the next decade.”

… “We are under no illusion that what we have to say will be taken seriously by the Board or by the administration,” Rose said.

… The members of Faculty Senate who voted in favor of the Finance Committee’s recommendation believe there should be a cap on athletic spending.

“How far does it go in these tight financial times?” Rose said. “Does intercollegiate athletics have a virtual blank check on the University’s bank account?”…

Yes. It’s Kentucky, after all.

… the North Dakota State University football team.

I mean. It paid off for awhile.

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From the Grand Forks Herald.
You need to register to get to the article.

A professor at the University of Maine looks at the athletics program there and writes a letter to the student newspaper.

I have read the recent articles in The Maine Campus on the Department of Athletics. Overall, I think they were done well, but you let the director of athletics get away with something in your interview.

At the end of Monday’s article, Athletic Director Blake James said: “I don’t think we should be funded like Ohio State, Florida, Penn State or any of the big programs.”

I bet he doesn’t. According to a database of the finances of public university athletic programs available on USA Today’s Web site, both Ohio State and Florida athletics received $0.00 of direct university support in 2008-2009, while University of Maine Athletics received $9,548,688.

It is important to note that the “big programs” are successful at self-sufficiency by large ticket sales, alumni donations, conference guarantees for away games, etc.

In contrast, UMaine provides well over 50 percent of the budget for the athletics program here — money that comes from the same source that should be used to support the mission of the university: education and research.

For the most part, the academic programs generate more than they receive — my own Department of Physics has a budget of $1.9 million and generated $2.5 million in student credit hours.

The bottom line is the academic programs are being forced to support a bloated administration and a not particularly successful athletics program — with the possible exception of hockey. This is unsustainable, and the Academic Program Prioritization Working Group had no chance of “achieving sustainability” since they were directed by administration to focus solely on proposing cuts to academics.

Dean Astumian
Professor of physics

… comments on the DUI arrest of a University of Kentucky basketball coach. It’s the coach’s fourth DUI arrest.

Enough has to be enough — even for a Kentucky basketball coach.

Another dumbshit American university builds a sports facility it can’t afford … goes begging for money from the state… uses operating funds to service the debt…

Today it’s Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

[S]ome on campus, noting the bonds may have to be paid off with university operating funds, questioned why officials let a project with at least 40 percent of its funding not yet identified break ground in November 2008 amid a worsening economy.

“Folks, to quote a friend of mine, to get out of a hole, the first rule is to stop digging,” Robert Mutchnick, an IUP professor and president of the faculty union’s campus chapter, wrote in a campus e-mail… “They are mortgaging the future of the university,” he said.

Happens every day.

Albert Hunt, New York Times:

…[T]he leaders of college athletics [will soon introduce in place of] the 64-team tournament, which balances quality and inclusiveness, … 96 teams next year.

This would encourage mediocrity and make more money. The latter is the dominant concern of too many leaders of higher education; it trumps the academic interests of the players and institutions and the desires of fans, whether it’s the basketball tournament’s expansion or the insistence on keeping the antiquated football bowl game schedule.

One of the top teams in college basketball this season was the University of Kentucky. Recent figures show that just 31 percent of its players graduate; a year ago the university brought in a hot-shot coach, John Calipari, who took two other schools to the tournament finals only to have those achievements wiped from the record books for rules violations (though Mr. Calipari himself was not directly implicated).

His Kentucky team was led by four fabulous freshmen, all of whom indicated last week that they would leave without graduating and play professionally next year. So much for the student-athlete concept.

Many of the basketball-crazed fans in Lexington, Kentucky, probably couldn’t care less about student athletes or graduation rates, or their coach’s possible ethical transgressions; he wins games…

An editorial in the University of Oregon newspaper describes Mike Bellotti’s classy exit from his athletics director position at UO (background here):

… Bellotti believes he was promised a five-year contract, which would have given him an even larger buyout, though it’s hard to know without evidence in writing. He said in a press conference he is not taking anything that isn’t owed to him, a statement that seems out of touch amid the ongoing argument that the University places a higher priority on athletics than academics. It’s irresponsible for Bellotti to insist upon so much money, when as former athletic director, he knows the athletic department already owes $16 million annually to cover debt service payments for Matthew Knight Arena…

[A] midday ceremony [on a recent Monday in honor of its victorious basketball team] violated an internal Duke agreement established in 2006 that no such celebrations would be held during precious class time.

The 2006 agreement was spearheaded by Richard Hain, a math professor at Duke since 1991, who waged a four-year campaign to limit those activities to evening hours. Hain sent me an e-mail message about the breach and also formally complained to university officials.

“This is the first time since that agreement was made that Duke’s men’s BB team has been to the Final Four,” Hain wrote. “This year, the agreement was completely ignored.”

In a telephone interview on Wednesday, Provost Peter Lange, who negotiated the original agreement with Hain, said: “There was a planning meeting, and someone at the meeting was assigned to check in with me about whether there was an agreement. That person never got in touch with me.”

Hain asked, “How can somebody schedule a major event that wipes out basically all undergraduate classes the whole afternoon, without talking to the provost?”

Lange added, “That mistake obviously is never going to be made again because, obviously, now everybody’s aware of the mistake.”

The team, flying back from Indianapolis, arrived an hour late, further disrupting students’ schedules…

… on whistleblowers in university sports.

It’s part of the College Sport Research Institute‘s annual conference, this year held at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

UD‘s excited that Sally Dear will be on the same panel.

“Without the athletic teams, nobody outside the state of Maine would even know the university exists.”

… you’re a better man than I am.

UD alone saw it coming.

From an article about SUNY Binghamton in the Wall Street Journal:

… “Basketball is the cesspool of college sports,” says James Duderstadt, a man too familiar with the game’s pitfalls. He was the University of Michigan’s president from 1988-96, a period marred by scandal. Federal charges were later brought against a booster, Ed Martin, and two others, for making illicit loans of more than $600,000 to four players. Mr. Martin pleaded guilty in 2002 to one count of conspiracy to launder money but died while awaiting sentencing; severe sanctions were placed on Michigan by the University and the NCAA. “It only takes a few outstanding players to make a program nationally competitive, which is why basketball is the source of such cheating. Universities don’t realize that it’s so visible that the blowback can cause enormous damage to the institution, damage that lasts for decades…

… Berkeley, but the University of Memphis?

The Faculty Senate passed a motion last week urging University of Memphis President Shirley Raines to stop subsidizing the athletic department $2.2 million from education and general funds.

After almost an hour of debate, 25 members voted for the motion, five voted against and six abstained.

Besides the athletic department subsidy, which increased from $1.5 million last year, education and general funds pay for scholarships, equipment upgrades, employee raises and other amenities to benefit students and faculty at The University…

To quote Michelle Obama: Damn.

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Oh. Not that these votes mean anything. Look at the latest on Berkeley athletics.