Programs that bleed money schools could use to educate their students; programs that feature games in huge expensive stadiums full of nobody in the stands; programs that have brought academic shame, ridicule, and corruption to their universities; programs that…
You know the drill.
Among several such freak shows in this country, some stand out as truly pathological in their drive to debase themselves. One of these is the University of Massachusetts, haunt of hopeless teams, gaping stadiums, and marauding students.
Now most professors, as I’ve noted before, cultivate a studied indifference toward the loud non-stop foulness big-time sports brings to their campus; but at places like U Mass things have a tendency to get so repulsive that eventually, for a few professors, repression fails. Like take for instance Max Page (here’s his cool website). Page is a real misfit at U Mass – a seriously educated, reflective, activist intellectual. He’ll surely leave the campus soon. But meanwhile he is making one hell of a fuss about the sports program there. He co-chaired a faculty committee on football, and made a little speech about the game to his colleagues.
Page … said “There are far, far better uses for these millions of dollars.”
He went on to describe the current state of UMass football as a “failure of epic proportions” …
“I want to have everyone be aware about promises about the future costs, given that none of the promises have been realized, in terms of the costs,” Page said. “Attendance is far below what was promised. The revenues are much lower than expected. The team has not performed well, and the coach, some have argued, has behaved even worse. And the move to Gillette (Stadium) – the ace in the hole of this effort – has been a resounding disappointment, to say the least.
“How much of our precious resources and our tax dollars and our student tuition dollars should we waste on the enterprise?” he continued. “Is it $10 million? Is it $20 million? It’s it $50 million? You should ask yourself ‘What is the point at which you say enough is enough?'”
Well, let’s see. What has, say, another big public university, Penn State, had to pay out lately because of its football program? There’s a running tally. UD has been following it. The latest reports have put it at $171 million.… But no, that’s not fair. That’s just the scandal. The scandal has cost that much so far. The football program’s a whole other thing.
I’m sure U Mass football will never generate any scandals. The only, uh, outside cost U Mass football consistently produces is post-riot clean-up bills.
December 13th, 2013 at 2:24PM
I know hyperbole is your stock in trade, but I do take offense at the notion that a “seriously educated, reflective, activist intellectual” like Max Page is out of place here at UMass, and that he’ll be leaving soon. Max is a colleague and friend, and he’s deeply committed to public higher education in Massachusetts and to UMass Amherst in particular. There are plenty of other serious intellectuals here (you may have heard of Nancy Folbre), and plenty of faculty and staff who, like myself, think that the move to big-time football was an idiotic waste of taxpayer money. Many of us were at yesterday’s Faculty Senate meeting, and several others, in addition to Max, spoke out against the continued deficit spending on football.
It seems clear to me that the decision to move to Division I-A (as it used to be called) was imposed on the campus by the Board of Trustees, and that the campus administration is getting pressured by Boston to support football. Even deans are getting their arms twisted to be boosters.
As for scandals, you don’t have to wait: they’ve already had one, albeit it’s still minor league compared with other football scandals.
Lord knows this place has its share of problems, but there are plenty of us who are working, in one way or another, to fix them.
December 13th, 2013 at 5:32PM
Good for you Brian, but in other unis across the nation, the Faculty Senates have prostrated themselves to the Molach of financial aide scandals and fraud. I’ve yet to see one FS broach the topic of massive increases in tuition, mainly to provide the collateral for the useless sports venues, spas posing as recreation centers and luxurious on campus apartments. And where has the outrage at the fact that most of American unis have allowed their administrative overhead to surpass the number of professors? As a former high school teacher who kept in regular touch with former students, I’ve witnessed the destroyed lives by way of massive debt loads, due, in large measure, to the bullshit and corruption of universities. If your FS has failed to address that systemic corruption, then all I can say is drop dead. If you have, then bravo….