Academics Versus Athletics?
Within the past week we have observed
two power struggles at Division I Univer
sities between the respective schools’ ad
ministrations and their athletic programs
come to a climactic ending. At one institu
tion, the administration won the match, at
the other, the athletic forces won. We are
of course referring to the University of
North Carolina at Charlotte and Clemson
University.
Last Tnursday, Clyde Walker resigned
as athletic director at UNC-Charlotte after
seven years, and undoubtedly with the bit
ter memories of the basketball team’s three
consecutive very bad losing seasons. In
these years, under a coach hired by
Walker, the basketball team’s record was
8-20 in 1982-83, 9-19 in 1983-84, and 5-23
for the season just ending. The combined
record was 22-62.
Money-Ma' ' g Sports
W alker, who was probably pressured in
to resigning, had reportedly become ex
tremely frustrated over the meager athletic
. budget of approximately $1,2§0,000 an
nually, a pittance compared to most other
Sun Belt schools. In audition to the limited
funds, Walker lost battle after battle with
the school’s administration over on
campus facilities — none for its basketball
program. The small and inadequate gym
where the team must practice has to be
shared with others.
Five days later, the man Walker hired
as basketball coach, Hal Wissel, resigned.
Wissell had had 17 years -of coaching ex
perience before coming to UNCC. These
Ewere climaxed in 1980-81 when
H’s NCAA Division II school
a Southern won the championship
and he was honored as the nation’s Divi
sion II Coach of the Year.
Following the double-barrelled resigna
tion and the fall from its basketball — the
only money-making sport — glory days of
a 1977 trip to the NCAA Final Four cham
pionship series, UNCC was extremely
anxious to quickly pick-up the pieces to get
the program moving again hopefully in
high gear.
Humors had It that UNCC would
recruit a “name” experienced athletic j
dhretor/basketball coafch and pay bias an
attractive salary. Unfortunately, we think,
instead of taking some time to shop around
for' talent, the UNCC administration
decided to hire Jeff Mullins as athletic
director and basketball coach.
The 42 year old Mullins is a former all
American forward at Duke University
(1962-64) and a 12-year NBA veteran. Ex
cept for two years (1976-1978) as an assis
tant athletic director at Duke, Mullins has
had no experience for the difficult dual job
he has been hired to fill.
For a university attempting to build
some respectability in its basketball pro
gram after three disastrous years, we have
to wonder if a man with 17 years of ex
perience can’t do it, how then can anyone
expect a new coach with no coaching ex
perience to do it. Good luck Jeff you’ll
need it.
Flipping the coin, we find that at Clem
son U niversity athletic support is so strong
that even the President of the University
must go if he is in conflict with the athletic
powers to be.
\bte Of Confidence
Clemson University President Bill At
chley resigned when the University’s
Board of Trustees denied his request for a
vote of confidence in the face of a power
struggle with athletic director Bill
McLellan.
In a prepared statement issued to the
Trustees at the beginning of the board
meeting, President Atchley said he would
resign if they failed to affirm publicly their
confidence in his administration. In the
absence of that affirmation, the public
would perceive Clemson as placing
athletics above academics. In fact "... as
far as almost everybody is concerned it’s
athletics versus academics.”
The struggle between Atchley and
McLellan came to a head two years ago
when, as a result of a football recruiting
violation, Atchley sought unsuccessfully to
reorganize the athletic department in op
position to McLellan k Recently another
controversy arose over the possinle misuse
of prescription drugs by student athletes.
It was tins conflict that lead to Dr. At
chley’s resignation.
Hidden from the spot light of the staff
changes and power struggles at both
universities is the hard fact of wanting win
ning athletic teams. Victories in sports
especially with conference championship
and high NCAA rating mean megabucks
at the box office, from television exposure
and highly supportive alumni. Winning
teams also mean larger enrollments and
bigger and better athletic departments at
institutions in the business sports and
academics in that order. Success in winn
ing makes winning easier because
recruiting is easier to attract the best
athletes. Furthermore, coaches can get
bigger salaries under better working condi
tions with increased job security .
AH of this occurs in the name «f enter
tainment and to serve as breeding grounds
for the increasing young talent aspiring to
be plucked up by the NFL or NBA where
in actuality only a handful of youth reach
the pro ranks usually for just a few years.
Somewhere, sometime very soon
athletics must be put in proper perspective
and in its proper place in our colleges and
universities or academic excellence as we
know that it should be will suffer and so
will the quality of life.
It should not be academics versus
athletics but academics and athletics and
in that order pure and simple. To have it
any other way will prostitute the very
educational system that has helped make
America what it is.
BE A PART OF THE NEW AWARENESS
MUTUAL
AID
COOPERATION
hi Search Of America’s Excellence?
In search of America’s
excellence. Where can it be
found? In the pentagon?
America’s churches and
synagogues? The school sys
tem? Or possibly the nation’s
capital? Bluntly put—no.
America’s excellence dwells
in the country’s elderly peo
ple. These are the people who
have helped shape this coun
try and have preserved its
right to be.
The elderly people in this
nation face a plight that is too
often the rule and not the
exception. Due to limitless
variables they are shut off
from the world and their
families. Too often it is be
lievect that old . age equals
worthlessness and loss of
desire to live in decency.
Elderly abuse is one variable
that separates the elderly
from the moving world.
Elderly abuse or granny
bashing has been discussed
often, solutions discussed but
no reconciliations made.
More and more of this coun
try’s elderly find themselves
at the mercy of their child
ren, grandchildren and care
takers. Dependency some
times breeds animosity and
this is what those who care
for elderly often time feel.
Sabrina
The scenario is familiar. A
person or couple retires, one
or both become ill, one dies
leaving*i**ther to live alone
and make ends meet, eco
nomic circumstances force
the person to give up his or
her home and move in with
children or seek out a nur
sing home. Their income is
fixed and those who Care for
them feel the elderly cannot
handle financial situations—
so pension cHecks or social
security checks are surren
dered in hopes of some eas
ing of the financial burden.
Americans lead such de
manding lifestyles that car
ing for the young and old
seems like tedious and point
less work. Stress comes into
play here.
The children of the elderly
begin to use the parent as a
scapegoat or sounding board
for stressful situations that
occur in the workplace. Ver
bal abuse begins with telling
the parent he is no good, a
burden or worthless because
of (a) the parent’s inabilities
to perform certain tasks and
(b) the child’s inabilities to
deal with his real problems.
The simplest way to deal
with things in their eyes is
through abuse.
The graying of America is
a reality, people are living
longer—some are indepen
dent, some are dependent. *
No matter they still are
living longer lives. Those
that are dependent are so due
to a combination of medical
problems and- financial
shortcomings. Severe medi
cal problems do effect day to
day tasks. Simply washing
ones face may become
impossible due to say
arthritis in the arms and
shoulders. Bare facts —
some people cannot help
themselves, thus it is the
working society’s responsibi
lity to assure dignity and
respect for this nation’s el
derly. Granny bashing
should not be in epidemic
form but extinct and-or non
existent.
Grandma and Grandpa are
the people who stood up
against wrong, fought for
peace and freedom — who
got this country to where it is
today. These people were
and are the insurance poli
cies of national peace and
freedom. They are the excel
lence of the past and pre
sent. They are living proof
that each individual’s life has
a purpose, great or small.
The elderly are near perfect
in each individual way.
Elderly abuse is disgrace
ful for American citizens to
admit. The Constitution and
amendments, laws and rul
ings, assure each person a
fair existence, so how can
beating a elderly parent or
grandparent afford them a
fair existence? Just take one
thing into heart—each time a
punch or slap is thrown or a
harsh word is spoken, one
day it could be you on the
receiving end. Do you want
to live your free life in fear
of what can happen tomor
row and can one take it once
more.
Try td make a conscious
effort to salute the elderley i
— not condemn them. Recog- A
nize their goodness under-^
stand their shortcomings atHMii
add them all together and sA|
how together they really aft-v
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Desegregation Benefits Both Whites And Blacks
By Alfreds L. Madison
Special To The Poet
The Reagan Justice Department
is taking a very activist role in
overturning court mandatory
reassignment school plans. It is
really engaging in a resegregation
method.
Jennifer Hochschild, assistant
professor of politics and public
policy in the Department of Politics
at Princeton University has
published an exhaustive study
entitled, "Thirty Years After
Brown." Some of Hochschild’s pro
vocative conclusions are: desegre
gation techniques that face the most
resistance in the short run produce
the best results in the long run. Less
white flight takes place when there
is a greater commitment of students
and teachers to make the plan work,
wider the area covered by the plan,
more grades are desegrated at once,
faster a plan is implemented and the
stronger the impact on racial
isolation. The study states that
metropolitan areawide plans reduce
racial isolation and white flight,
improve minorities’ academic
achievement, speed up housing
desegregation, increase educational
options for students and enhance
aWNM#.
Hochschild states that the wont
strategy for achieving desegrega
tion is the Reagan Administration’s
actions. Once a plan has been in
place along with all of the achieve
ments, students show greater racial
tolerance and engage in more inter
racial activities. By rescinding
desegregation plans, the present
Just ice,.Department resurrects
opposition to desegregation which
has been declining, decreases racial
tolerance and makes desegregation
as difficult and unsuccessful as
possible.
Alfreds
While the Administration
emphasizes quality education, it has
abolished the Emergency School Aid
Act (ESAA), which was the only
federal program that aided
voluntary quality education.
Hochschlld feels that there is some
merit in the stand that sortie civil
righto activists take in claiming that
high-quality. Black-dominated
schools are an attractive alternative
to mandatory reassignment rather
than a surrender to white resistance.
She sees the Brown decision, not
fundamentally, to improve .
education opportunity for Black
children, but instead as a means to
that end HochechUd states that
desegregation and quality education
can be achieved together that they
can be a catalyst to improve
education for both Blacks and
whites. She says, “if ever there was
an instance in which elected officials
should lead rather than follow, this
Is it.”
The study reveals that school
desegregation met less resistance in
the sixties because the country
experienced a stronger national
conscensus on the morality of ending
racism. By the seventies politicians
and citizens began associating
school desegregation with forced
busing. Some Blacks and whites are
opposed to desegregation.
Hochschiid states that Black
children are often segregated within
the desegregated schools, they are
victimized by the tracking system.
Black students are suspended and
expelled more than whites and for
less severe reasons, and for longer
periods of time. Teachers require
less of Blacks than they do whites,
because of preconceived notions that
they are unable to learn as much and
as fast as whites. The study states
that the middle class Blacks with the
same background and qualifications
as whites face extra hurdles in what
remains a white man's society - the
prospects of success for more than a
few Blacks look pretty slim.
Hochschild says that "even though
the physical facilities and other
tangible factors may be equal,
deprive the children of the minority
group of equal education opportun
ities. The doctrine of ‘separate but
equal* has no place.. Separate
educational faculties are inherently
unequal. Racial isolation must be
eliminated in schools regardless of
white and Black citizens
preferences.*' Nathaniel Jones,
former NAACP attorney, argued
that “constitutional issues are,
(aider our form of government, not
resolved by public opinion poUs/’ In
its actions against school busing,
especially since the NEA reports
that around 91 percent of ail the
public school children are bethg
bused, and that leas than four
percent are bused for the purpose of
integration, the Reagan Administra
tion continues to seek to overturn
school busing, giving as Its reason
that the majority of the people are
against it. Constitutionally, since the
V; .v . r ■ . • *■ • '
President, members of Congress
and the Supreme Court took the oath
to uphold the mandates of the
Constitution, it is encumbent upon
them to lead the public in
understanding and acceptance of the
Constitution mandates, instead of
emasculating it to satisfy popular
opinion, thus rendering it a
worthless document.
Hochschild emphasizes that
desegregation done well helps both
races. She gives Several methods for
accomplishing these:
Making most classes hetero
geneous in race and ability,
establishing Interracial work groups
within and across classrooms,
monitoring placement in special
education classes and classes for the
educable mentally retarded to
ensure that the benefits of being
“pulled out” of classrooms outweigh
their costs for each participant,
developing clear, fair and consis
tently enforced discipline Codes,
enhancing counseling programs,
expanding extracurricular activities
and making sure that they are
desegregated, enhancing art and
music • classes and mingling
students of different abilities in
them, and ensuring that faculty and
staff are desegregated and that
members of both raees hold
positions of power.
Hochschild states that there are 72
studies that support the fact that
these changes do work, and that only
one study rejects these facto. It
proves that interracial work groups
do more to improve race relations
than do interpersonal competition.
The studies show that well-done
desegregation increases academic
achievement, it causes students to
help one another with cross racial
interaction lhat continues outside
the schools