THE SEAHAWK/SEPTEMBER 21, ZDOa
9
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Thomas M, Ruyle
View from the Dddo’s Nest
Knight firing exposes modern college values
Editorial Viewpoint
Who Is Benefiting From the New Alcohol Laws?
It finally happened. After years of
complaints, allegations, televised tan
trums and accusations of assaulting his
basketball players, Indiana University
finally saw fit to fire Bobby Knight af
ter grabbing a young student by the arm
and lecturing him on manners.
Bobby Knight, the infamous lU
coach, lecturing someone on manners.
Ha! I would have paid to see such a farce,
just to see how ludicrous it could be.
After narrowly escaping dismissal a
few months ago amid a series of other
alleged transgressions toward other stu
dents, this was the straw that broke the
camel’s back. lU President Myles Brand
finally saw fit to solve the problem and
dismiss Knight.
But the bigger picture is not Bobby
Knight, It’s the American collegiate ath
letic system.
Brand made a good call...but he
waited way too long to do so. By wait
ing so long. Brand proved that his uni
versity is more concerned with having a
winning basketball team than the safety
of the players, other students and any
one else within chair-throwing distance
of the coach.
Most of us would agree that if
a professor were accused of the same
behavior as Knight, that professor would
be sent packing immediately. So why not
the coach? After all, coaches are respon
sible for instilling leadership skills and
molding young men and women - and
they are responsible for their safety, too.
It’s a double standard.
All in all, it’s a sad commen
tary on the values of the American col
legiate system: the rise of athletics as the
prime focus of the institution’s existence,
rather than the reason for building a
school in the first place - as a center for
higher learning. Modem American uni
versities spend an insane amount of time
and money building their athletic pro
grams while today’s college graduates
enter the job market less and less pre
pared. In short, colleges are becoming
more and more renowned as farm clubs
for the professional sports leagues than
fertile ground for tomorrow’s leaders to
blossom.
And to prove that point, we
simply need to look at the lU campus
after Knight was fired. Several thousand
students from that supposedly great
school spent several days demonstrating
all over campus, causing damage and
disrupting the academic pursuits of their
fellow students - just because the head
basketball coach, a well-known jerk, was
fired. Sure enough, some of these en
lightened protestors went so far as to
threaten President Brand and his family,
as well as the family of the young stu
dent whom Knight tried to “lecture”
about manners.
And while Knight handled the
situation badly and sealed his fate, per
haps our nation’s universities need to
take a lesson — and a long, hard look — at
academic values.
Bar AN DPINIDN?
Df course you
DO...
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US.
LETTERS TO THE
editor can be
SUBMITTED TO THE
SEAHAWK AT
University union
ROOM 2Q5E
DR BY EMAIL AT
SHIraXTOR@HaTMAIUCDM
Drinking is a rite of passage in
college. Whether it is done to cel
ebrate, as experimentation, or as a
weekly ritual college students al
ways have and always will drink.
The recent initiative to curb un
derage drinking is well intentioned
in the aspect that it may cut down
on number of drink drivers and the
illegal sales of alcohol to minors.
However, the tactics employed to
enforce these laws are flawed.
On any weekend night one is sure
to recognize the circling blue lights
in front of houses that are hosting
parties. In many cases the police
officers who bust up these functions
send intoxicated partygoers home
and ticket the home’s owner. The
higher fines that the new legislation
will hand over to party hosts who
“aid and abet minors” may deter
these people from holding parties,
yet putting intoxicated individuals
into their cars and on the road cre
ates a much more serious problem.
Similarly, the process of holding
party hosts responsible for the ac
tions of their guests is unfair as few
parties in Wilmington are “invita
tion-only” gatherings where the host
knows all of his guests. Parties can
get out of hand and there is no guar
antee that home-owners have knowl
edge of all alcohol and substance
abuse on their premises.
The recent trend to create new
laws aiming at preventing underage
drinking is having a two-fold nega
tive effect on today’s youth. The
legislators seemingly fail to realize
that no amount of regulation will
prevent underage drinking; the re
sult of the new laws is that under
age drinkers will find more se
cluded, less safe places to drink, and
those who are caught will have a
legal black mark on their record for
the rest of their life.
Certainly, we must be vigilant in
stemming the incidence of DWI of
fenses and other alcohol-related
problems where safety is compro
mised. But to levy heavy fines and
possible jail on those who drink un
derage - and those who provide a
legitimate safe place to drink - will
only create more problems for the
police and legal system than it will
solve.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY
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