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| Education will never equal price
of athletics |
Grayson Mendenhall
Chancellor | Student Development Beat
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Just the other day
I was thinking about the new $30-32 million Athletic Facilities
Plan that was recently approved by the Appalachian State University
Board of Trustees.
I pondered why the Board of Trustees would approve such a staggering
amount of money for athletics while the rest of the university continues
to suffer.
As sad as this is, it should not surprise anyone.
Athletics have always been more important than academics when it
comes down to who gets the big bucks.
I’m not just talking about universities either.
It all stems from the fact that strength and physical prowess are
always considered superior to intelligence in American society.
Face it. It’s true.
This is the reason why professional athletes can have multi-million
dollar salaries for doing nothing but chasing a ball around the
court or field.
I’m not trying to demean professional sports or sports in general.
I just have a problem with someone making millions of dollars doing
something that offers nothing back to society except entertainment
value.
Why is it necessary for someone to get paid $10 million a year just
for doing something they love to do anyway?
I’m a writer. I love to write. I do it every day, and I think
I’m getting pretty good at it. However, hell would freeze over
before I earned even $1 million a year. I’ll probably never
earn even a six-figure salary.
I hate to admit it to myself, but intelligence just isn’t important
to society.
At a university such as Appalachian, where half of the student body
would rather drink themselves into a hole than learn something useful,
it couldn’t be more obvious.
It seems like everywhere I turn, I see evidence of this.
People who would rather choke down an hour of “Joe Millionaire”
than maybe read a book or even have a (god forbid) meaningful conversation.
It would be funny if it weren’t true, but it is.
How will we ever advance ourselves if there is no one to encourage
independent and intelligent thought? How can we resolve problems
in society if we don’t think rationally?
If rationality and independent thought are what make us human, then
how can we even call ourselves human beings?
We don’t have to continue on this way, but for some people
it is just too easy to be complacent about it.
I thought that terrorists attacking the United States would make
people more aware of how precious life is and how we should spend
it doing something meaningful. It hasn’t.
I refuse to give in to it, though.
Using strength instead of reason to solve our problems will only
drag us down.
Take our current situation in Iraq. Which would be the more beneficial
outcome? A diplomatic solution where all parties involved can have
their say and express their grievances or a military solution where
we drop bombs on cities and innocent people get to run around with
their skin on fire.
I think any solution that involves clear and rational thinking as
opposed to carpet-bombing would be the optimal solution.
Unfortunately, our so-called leaders think differently. No one wants
clear, rational and boring solutions.
They want glorious battles, vanquished enemies, pictures of smiling
American soldiers and shiny new football stadiums.
How can we expect improved academic programs when the people in
charge don’t want what we want?
I guess that all of us who aren’t athletes will just have to
lie down and accept the fact that our higher education will never
be worth the $30 million going towards improving university athletics.
Long live tradition. |
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