TO: Mr. Chad Campbell (NPR) and Mr. John Feinstein (Sports Reporter)
FROM: The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA)
DATE: 27 March 2006
Dear Mr. Campbell and Mr. Feinstein:
As co-chairs of the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics,
a national faculty group advocating for reform in intercollegiate athletics, we
write to respectfully disagree with several statements made by Mr. John Feinstein
on the
Contrary to Mr. Feinstein’s statements, there are no reputable data on a national scale supporting any claim that success in athletics leads to any change in academic fundraising, faculty recruitment, or student applications. A 2003 NCAA Study on athletic spending showed no relationship between athletic success and quality of applicants. This conclusion was echoed by the results from a 2004 Knight Commission report by Professor Robert Frank which dispells the notion that athletic success has a positive effect on academic quality. In the well-respected book “Game of Life”, James Shulman and William Bowen present evidence that alumni want less, not more emphasis on intercollegiate athletics, and that athletic success does not lead to increased alumni giving. Shulman and Bowen also point out that athletics as an institutional goal falls far below teaching, residential life, creating a diverse student body, and other priorities.
We are most concerned by Mr. Feinstein’s comment that
faculty recruitment, and by extension faculty quality, are enhanced by success
on the athletic fields. Not only is
there no data to support this contention, there is quite a bit of evidence to
the contrary. Faculty insist on being associated with
schools known for their academic strengths rather than their athletic
prowess. Only last week, Dr. Carl Weiman, a Nobel Prize winning scientist, announced that he
was leaving the
In the NPR interview, Mr. Feinstein specifically referred to
the success of Duke basketball, stating that “Duke’s
admissions have tripled applications”. We do not have any direct information
about Duke’s application numbers and it may indeed be correct that Duke’s
basketball success spills over into the academic side. However even if true,
the situation at Duke is the exception rather than the rule as there are a
number of reports that argue
convincingly against this proposition. For example, athletic success at the
Intercollegiate athletics can and should contribute positively to the overall academic goals of higher education institutions. COIA believes there are three principal ways that intercollegiate athletics aligns with and supports the mission of the university: it can contribute to personal development of students reinforcing academic excellence; it can contribute to community and institutional loyalty; and it can broaden the positive interest in and public support for higher education. COIA strongly supports these goals, but believes that these values cannot be realized if we abandon the principle that the primary mission of a university is education and research. Allowing the athletic tail to continually gain strength at the expense of the academic dog will result in a strong tail and weak dog. In this era of severe academic budget tightening, it is important that institutions focus all their attention on maintaining and improving academic quality rather than increasing the win-loss ratio on the athletic field.
We highly respect PBS and Mr. Feinstein. We hope that the points raised here will provide background and context to NPR and Mr. Feinstein the next time the issue of athletic success and its academic impact is discussed in a public forum.
Sincerely,
Virginia Shepherd, Professor of Pathology and Medicine,
Nathan Tublitz, Professor of Biology, University of
Co-Chairs, The Coalition of Intercollegiate Athletics (http://www.neuro.uoregon.edu/~tublitz/COIA/index.html)