How Big-Time Sports Ate College Life - NYTimes.com
...It is that point — “this commercial thing” in the middle of academia, as Charles T. Clotfelter, a public policy professor at Duke, put it — that some believe has thrown the system out of kilter. In his recent book “Big-Time Sports in American Universities,” Dr. Clotfelter notes that between 1985 and 2010, average salaries at public universities rose 32 percent for full professors, 90 percent for presidents and 650 percent for football coaches...
1 comment:
I have a family member who was an instructor at a major university - known for its football team. The coach's salary was unbelievable - in excess of 1 million a year. This was greatly out of proportion in comparison to anyone else employed by the university - including the president and faculty. Of course, the justification is that the football program makes money for the school. No doubt a sizable amount is donated to the university by the fat cat and perpetually juvenile Alums who live for football season, own condos near campus, paint themselves up in team colors and party down on game day.
It would be interesting to know, however, how much of the money generated by football is funneled right back into the football program, and how much is made available to the academic departments.
Sadly, football is a priority for many of the nations high schools, as well. My kids went to a decent size,public high school with a pretty good academic reputation. There was never enough money to pay for museum trips for the very few, very small art classes. No money to fully fund a decent music department. And, in some classes, not enough money to purchase a text book for every child. But, there was enough to construct a state of the art, 1 million dollar (several years ago - would cost a lot more today)foot ball stadium.
And we wonder why the American education system ranks below that of many other countries.
Post a Comment