Shame on KU
If you build it, they will... not use it?
August 21, 2008
By Joshua Anderson
A couple of weeks ago I took a walk with my three-year-old daughter over campus. Before too long we happened upon a large group of men playing football in their new practice facility.
“What are they doing?” asked my daughter.
“That’s called football.” I said. “Want to watch?”
She did. I took her out of her stroller and put her on my shoulders, so she could get a better view.
Soon, we were approached by a man wearing too many articles of clothing with little Jayhawks on them. He informed us that this was a “closed” practice, and that we would have to leave. If we wanted, we could return in a week to watch an “open” practice. As I care very little about football (yes, people like me exist), I decided not to mention to the man that I was on a public street, and that there was nothing that he could legally do to remove me from it, and I moved on. I could’ve been angry on account of my daughter not being able to watch the big men play bang-bang, but she, like me, didn’t care.
As I walked I craned my neck up at the parking garage, and wondered how in the world they were going to keep people from watching them develop their top-secret football skills. After reading the paper this morning, I learned that the geniuses in the Athletics Department have already found a way to deal with the problem. It would seem that they have decided to go ahead and not practice on their 31 million-dollar practice field. Brilliant!
If, as the Lawrence Journal-World asserted last Saturday, public support for the complex has grown, this turn of events might turn that trend on its head. But if public opinion for the Athletics Department’s antics takes a turn for the worse, as it should, this whole recent episode will turn out to be more than “irritating," as it has been described by the football team.
Apparently, according to the UDK article, everyone “was aware” of the situation, and so nobody should be “surprised” at the current situation. In other words: the Athletics Department knew they were going to spend 31 million dollars for nothing, so why is everyone complaining? Jim Marchiony, Associate Athletics Director, has essentially said that spending 31 million dollars for nothing isn’t “keeping anybody awake at night.” These folks must have a lot of cash floating around if they don't bat an eyelash at 31 mil.
Meanwhile, talks of budget cuts are coming closer to making the loss of over 100 jobs on KU campus a reality. According to an article that ran in the Lawrence Journal-World, besides the job losses, equipment purchases for classrooms and offices will have to be delayed. “In times when supplies are exhausted,” the Chancellor says, “faculty and staff will do without.” Why in the name of Higher Education is KU experiencing a time of exhausted supplies?!
And if that wasn't enough, just for a topper on the record-high levels of sheer ridiculousness that has clouded the University, it was reported that sales of officially licensed merchandise are the highest of any collegiate sports program in the nation.
I’m starting to wonder: is KU a school with a sports program attached to it, or a bloated Sports Corporation with a languishing academic program in its shadow?
The levels of incompetency exhibited on the highest levels of both the University proper and the University of Kansas Athletics Department are unprecedented. Everyone in this community should be outraged at the arrogance with which the Athletics Department treads on the well-being of the student body and the city of Lawrence. The purpose of the University is education and learning, not revenue. The ability of a sports program to raise millions and millions of dollars should be reflected in its ability to apply it to the academic and educational quality of the university which it represents, not the flashiness of its unused and overpriced playgrounds.
Two things are needed:
1) An in-depth investigation into the nature of the relationship between the university and the corporate entity of the Athletics Department. It is clear that reform is in need to preserve the integrity of the University of Kansas.
2) A new use for the abandoned fields just southeast of the stadium. I propose a spontaneous, grassroots, student organized get-together, wherein we facebook a massive protest party, jump the fence, and take back what is rightfully ours. And/ or we could give it to a sports program that really deserves it, like the women’s soccer team.
Thanks for reading,
theblackrabbit
(Puerto Rico day 5 coming soon...)
Discussion
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Jim Marchiony should be fired. No joke. Marchiony is blemish on a fine athletic department, and an idiot.
It starts with JoeCollege.com. Bullying an independent company because a few squares don't like the "Muck Fizzou" shirt (which I am currently wearing proudly, and will attend a game this fall wearing it just to protest Marchiony). And in the end two things happened. First, we find out that KU owns the word "Kansas" and, therefore, it cannot be placed on any shirt without prior approval. (We also later find that approval was given to the Young Democrats to use an altered KU phrase on a shirt... I thought that was hysterical. Not to mention that KU also owns Rock, Chalk, and Jayhawk.) Since KU owns the word "Kansas," I am awaiting lawsuits against Kansas City, Arkansas City, Arkansas, the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs and Wizards and the AFL team, the City of Topeka for having a street named Kansas, so on and so forth... And second, the "Muck Fizzou" shirts are allowed to be printed as they do not violate the ownership of the word "Kansas."
Finally, Marchiony backing the team, saying they should not use the multi-million dollar practice facility that STUDENTS AND ALUMNI are paying for, is beyond ridiculous. And allowing those same people, tax payers and students and alumni, to be run off for watching from a public viewing area (a street) scoffs in the face of freedom of assembly. No laws were being broken, and I could sit on the hill and do the same thing.
In the above court case, the jury basically said, "Muck Farchiony. And Screw Lew." I agree. Both Marchiony and Lew Perkins NEED TO BE laying in bed, dealing with insomnia, and finding ways to use money from the Athletic Department coffers to buy the much needed supplies for the underfunded rest-of-the-university.
I support you 100% with the facebook event idea. I'd be suprised if THOUSANDS of students didn't show up.
Handing over the new practice fields to the women's soccer team is a fine idea. This would be an excellent use of Lawrence's latest, multi-million-dollar "highway to nowhere" (the other being the expensive Lawrence Trafficway overpass on South Iowa St., also the result of hideously poor planning). The arrogance on the part of the KU Athletic Department is astounding.
At the same time that the City of Lawrence is hustling to find a measly million dollars to keep the public transit system going, vast sums are being squandered on a for-profit sports franchise that has become bloated on its own revenues while dropping a few crumbs (from licensing revenues that are primarily profits taken by selling the word "Kansas" back to Kansans on overpriced merchandise) for student scholarships (the $700K allocated to general scholarships is only a tenth of the $7 million for athletic scholarships).
For those who didn't follow the Joe College fiasco in this summer's Lawrence Journal-World, here's a link to their story on the utterly confusing verdict (which included the decision that the phrase "Our Coach Can Eat Your Coach" was a trademark infringement!)
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/jul/17/verdict_doesnt_make_clear_why_some_shirts_ok/
The next day, Governor Sibelius was pictured wearing a KU-approved (!) T-shirt reading "Barack Chalk Jayhawk":
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/jul/18/tshirt_turmoil_barack_chalk_jayhawk_tshirt_also_vi/
Given the inspiration of Michael Phelps and his eight Olympic gold medals, another plan would be to convert the practice fields to a state-of-the-art Olympic-sized swimming pool and bring back the KU men's varsity swim team, canned in 2002 "after KU athletic officials decided... to drop men's swimming and men's tennis as varsity sports in order to save money an estimated $3.6 million over five years."
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2002/feb/17/ku_mens_swimmers/
Maybe a switch from an emphasis on spectating to participating in sports would help solve the state's 25% obesity problem:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/aug/20/state_obesity_tops_25/
I completely agree! It looks like Six Flags over Football now and the players aren't even using it!
Party at the moontower!!!!
The field is already striped...maybe the long-lost parking lot will reemerge from underneath the field.
I just don't see why we even needed a practice field...last year they did perfectly fine without one...does having two separate fields magically make you better? Because if so...why did they JUST NOW put one in. Plus...they've only won ONE orange bowl...it's not like they're gods or anything. And everything is about money nowadays...as much as i hate to admit it...
This is ridiculous! We spend $31 million on a brand new practice facility and they can't even use the fields? How stupid are you, KU athletics, if you saw this problem coming and did not change the design of the fields or attempt to remedy this problem.
I move that we set a cap for how much Alumni can donate to KU athletics. We should look at other schools and figure out ways we can limit donations for Football and Basketball, which already have more than enough money. Make the alumni support other sports- such as baseball, women's rowing, women's soccer, track and field, etc. or even the Academic programs at the university....wow that sounds like a crazy idea. Alumni actually supporting academic programs.
Oh and while we're at it...can we bring back men's soccer and men's swimming? I bet there will be a huge push for men's swimming again after this years olympic games....just a hunch.
When and where will the protest be? I want in.
Oh, and do you have a link to the facebook event?
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