I think the professor is up to something. It could be even a great
opportunity if student-athletes, whether minority or not, got a fair shake
of the revenue accruing from their efforts. Especially those who don't
make to the pro level - Semei
From Diverse Online
http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/printer_9622.shtml
===========================================================
Current News
Rutgers Professorâs
Comments About Minority Student-Athletes Called Racist
By Associated Press
Sep 30, 2007, 21:17
TRENTON, N.J
A longtime critic of Rutgers University's drive into big-time sports
is being criticized over a newspaper article comment that university
officials have branded as racist.
At the end of a New York Times article last week about William C.
Dowling's failed efforts to get Rutgers to turn away from high-stakes
athletics, the tenured English professor responded to arguments that
athletic scholarships provide opportunity to low-income, minority students.
âIf you were giving the scholarship to an intellectually brilliant kid
who
happens to play a sport, that's fine,â Dowling said. âBut they give it
to
a functional illiterate who can't read a cereal box, and then make him
spend 50 hours a week on physical skills. That's not opportunity. If you
want to give financial help to minorities, go find the ones who are at the
library after school.â
Rutgers Athletic Director Bob Mulcahy told local newspapers that
Dowling's comment was âa blatantly racist statement.â
In a statement released by the university, Rutgers President Richard
McCormick called it âinaccurate and inhumane.â
âIt also has a racist implication that has no place whatsoever in our
civil discourse,â Dr. McCormick said in the statement.
A Rutgers spokesman said Thursday he did not know if Dowling would
face any sanctions.
Contacted Thursday, Dowling defended his statement, saying that
Mulcahy and McCormick had taken it out of context, that he was
directly answering a question related to minorities.
âIf someone has a way to answer that question without mentioning
race, I would like to hear it,â said Dowling, who called the officials'
accusation of racism the âcheapest rhetorical ploy I've ever heard.â
Dowling, who said he was arrested in the South during the 1960s for
work in the civil rights movement, said McCormick was racist for
running an athletics program that exploited minorities.
âNone of these kids would have been able to get into Rutgers if they
hadn't been able to throw something or kick something or slam dunk
something,â Dowling said.
Rutgers' aspirations to elite status in college athletics, most notably
in football, have provoked considerable controversy over the years in
the university community, with some arguing that the university should
spend less and compete at a lower level. And last year, the university
axed six of its smaller intercollegiate sports teams amid state budget
cuts, even as more money was poured into the football program.
The investment in football has paid off in unaccustomed success for the
team, a sold-out stadium and major increases in sales of licensed
merchandise. Last year's team went 11-2, won a bowl game and finished
No. 12 in the final AP poll. This year's team is 3-0 and ranked No. 10 in
the country.
Rutgers athletic officials say the football team's 2.7 grade-point average
is
on par with the university as a whole.
An NCAA academic progress report for the 2003-04 to 2005-06 school
years listed the Rutgers football team's academic progress as being in
the 80th to 90th percentile for Division I football programs.
---------------------------------
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