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How Provincial Universities Stay that Way: The Key is Sports

Iowa State University President Steven Leath said he would love to see athletics at ISU provide financial support to academics.

However, he was not optimistic about this occurring anytime soon.

“We are facing a number of very large, comprehensive serious lawsuits related to athletics,” Leath said. “So before we would change our budget structure and put money into academics, we want to at least get past some of these immediate lawsuits.”

Margaret Soltan, April 23, 2016 6:54AM
Posted in: sport

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2 Responses to “How Provincial Universities Stay that Way: The Key is Sports”

  1. Jack/OH Says:

    I’m not a big believer in “tells”, Freudian slips, etc., as definitive of much. But, President Leath’s “before we would . . . put money into academics, we want to at least get past some of these immediate lawsuits.” Well, yeah, gosh, darn, you wouldn’t want academics held hostage to, well, you know, stuff.

    A non-academic, I’ve had the very occasional great pleasure of meeting younger faculty at my local Podunk Tech in off-campus settings. I’m not an important man, but they don’t know I have something of an inside track, courtesy of an important relative, into the thinking of Podunk Tech’s admin and trustees. They–the junior profs– pour their guts out about how they’re bullied by senior profs and admin types, and, alternately, about their passion for learning and understanding the world around them.

    My local Podunk Tech does good stuff. The reality is that a lot of that is diploma-selling. I wish I didn’t feel that way.

  2. theprofessor Says:

    Thank God this Iowa State guy has his priorities straight. I’m fearful that our admin and trustees may decide to recommit some spare change to academics.

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