athletics

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Are some administrators shivering?

Byuclafaculty

No, not because of the cold weather in other parts of the country.  Rather, because of the headline regarding Northwestern University’s football program in today’s Inside Higher Ed:  Athletes Move to Unionize The Internet – or at least, the piece of the Internet where people pay moderate attention to college sports – blew up Tuesday afternoon with the news that some number of Northwestern University football players are seeking to unionize.  The apparently unprecedented step is a potential watershed moment for athletes in commercial sports programs like those at Northwestern, who were lauded by outspoken critics and sports columnists who…

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Is the ball still in their court or has the train left the station?

Byuclafaculty

Hey! Let’s rebuild the old stadium! Sorry to mix metaphors.  But Inside Higher Ed today has a long story on Berkeley athletics which have recently been in the news for low graduation rates and problems in funding a stadium upgrade.  A white paper from the Berkeley Center for the Study of Higher Education suggests that the program is running as an autonomous and relatively uncontrolled business operation. It is written by a former vice chancellor – who can now tell all -and a Berkeley grad student. See http://cshe.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/shared/publications/docs/ROPS.CSHE_.12.13.Cummins%26Hextrum.CalAthletics.1.6.2014.pdf and http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/01/08/highlighting-berkeley-paper-explores-academic-damage-expanding-independent-athletics The issue is whether control can be retaken or whether…

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Q&A

Byuclafaculty

The Contra Costa Times ran an interview with UC president Napolitano that was published yesterday.  But apparently the interview occurred in late 2013.  Here are the questions:Q: One of your first proposals was to make tuition rates more predictable. What might that look like? Q: At the last UC regents meeting, Gov. Jerry Brown said UC had slim chances of securing additional state funding, with all of the competing needs in Sacramento. What did you make of that? Q: Were you surprised by the low graduation rates for some student-athletes at Cal? (UC Berkeley’s football team had the lowest graduation…

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Lessons from Berkeley’s White Elephant Stadium for UCLA, the Regents, and UC?

Byuclafaculty

People keep noticing Berkeley’s White Elephant money-draining stadium – one of the grand capital projects that the Regents routinely approve based on pretty slides and business plans offered by the campuses.  Peter Schrag in the San Francisco Chronicle today ties the low graduation rates of Berkeley athletes with the stadium: …Fueling the… issue is the chronic matter of cost – what the university kicks in to the sports program – and what someone called “its gold plated” spending. Brian Barsky, a Berkeley computer science professor and vocal critic of the athletics program, says between 2003 and 2011, athletics “drained campus…

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Berkeley admits to serious student-athlete flaws

Byuclafaculty

From the San Francisco Chronicle: UC Berkeley officials, responding to recent reports of lax admissions standards and poor graduation rates among student athletes, admitted this week that the university has a serious problem that is at times exacerbated by the desire to succeed on the field. “At a point, the pressure to win caused us to put more focus on the athletic piece and, as a result, we saw less performance on the academic side,” said Cal Athletic Director Sandy Barbour… “We have an issue. No doubt,” said Barbour…. “It’s a serious one. And we have taken several measures to correct…

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Did Wiseman Catch This? (Check Prior Post)

Byuclafaculty

UC Berkeley, the world’s top-ranked public university, is admitting student athletes with shockingly low grades and scores if they show promise as revenue-generating football or basketball players, say two Cal scholars whose new study helps explain why athletes on campus have the worst graduation rates in the country. While the highly competitive university routinely turns away applicants who earn straight A’s in high school, it has also been admitting student athletes on full scholarship even if their average high school grade was a B-minus. Its policy, in fact, permits a C average.Also disparate is the way Cal evaluates students’ scores on the…

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UCLA’s Lawsuit to Retain Baseball Stadium at VA Property Criticized by LA Times

Byuclafaculty

Westwood’s Veterans Home, back in the day Blog readers will know that various tenants of the VA property in Westwood are facing litigation and potential eviction on the grounds that the property is not being used for its intended purpose.  UCLA’s baseball team uses the internal stadium: From yesterday’s LA Times‘ editorial page: [excerpt]: …Instead of appealing the decision, UCLA could play a helpful role by urging the VA to sit down with the plaintiffs to work out an agreement that meets the needs of the interested parties but also ensures that the federal government fulfills its responsibility. If baseball…

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Report: Berkeley drops ball on athlete graduation rate

Byuclafaculty

From the San Jose Mercury-News: The No. 1 public university in the country has the least success graduating players among the 72 teams in the major football-playing conferences, according to NCAA data released Thursday. Just 44 percent of Cal’s football players graduated within the parameters established by the NCAA. For comparison, archrival Stanford is among the national leaders at 93 percent; state school neighbor San Jose State checked in at 51 percent.  Nor is football the only Cal team struggling to graduate players. While many sports are performing well, men’s basketball posted a Graduation Success Rate of 38 percent —…

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UCLA will appeal eviction from VA baseball stadium

Byuclafaculty

UCLA ROTC cadet in 1930s From the Westwood-Century City Patch: UCLA will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that effectively locks the university out of Jackie Robinson Stadium—which is on Veterans Administration land in West Los Angeles —where Bruin baseball has been played for decades, it was announced Tuesday… If appeals fail, the university may have to vacate the stadium after the 2014 season… U.S. District Judge S. James Otero ruled in August that by not using the land to provide health care for vets, the VA is in violation of federal law. Otero issued a written ruling Monday rejecting efforts…

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UCLA: Take Me Out of the (Legal) Ballgame

Byuclafaculty

Note: Readers of this blog will have been alerted to the situation below in an earlier posting. UCLA has gone to court to overturn a decision that could force it to give up its baseball stadium on land leased from the U.S. veterans agency. The university described itself as a “surprising casualty” of an August ruling that the Department of Veterans Affairs violated federal law by leasing part of its sprawling West Los Angeles campus for commercial use. In court papers, UCLA asked to be heard by the court before the order is enforced in February. The motion was joined…