Ensuring regard for education

When IU President Myles Brand announced that Bob Knight was fired as IU's head coach, I was surrounded by people who supported or hated the decision, and people who didn't care. \nI, being an IU basketball fan from the age of 5, respected the decision because Knight had been, in my opinion, forewarned. But I did not like it at all.\nA recent IDS article reported that, in a speech to the National Press Club, Brand laid out his ideas for downsizing intercollegiate sports in hopes of promoting "academics first." With that move, my respect for Brand went out the window.\nI am a student first and foremost. I believe that the only reason to attend college is to get an education. But I also firmly believe that the best education is not always found in the lecture hall.\n"The goal is not to become a leader in the reform of collegiate athletics, but a leader in the best research university in the country," the article quoted Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Relations Christopher Simpson as saying.\nAs a theater student, most of my days are spent in the rehearsal room, preparing the practical theater education I know will be beneficial when I look for work in my field.\nIn the same way that journalism students become involved in the IDS as practical education for becoming journalists, IU basketball players get their practical education on the court.\nTheir practical education of choice is to participate on the IU basketball team, beyond their classroom academic work, just as mine is to direct plays -- something I don't get to do in class.\nIU has always been the pinnacle of cleanliness in play, program and academic performance. Basketball players almost always stay for four years and graduate, the program has been free from bribes and paying off players and the team has always been just that -- a team.\nOne of the things I've always enjoyed about IU basketball has been the sense of team play upon which Coach Knight insisted. IU was not home to ego-boosting, overachieving, prima donna star prospects, yet its players succeeded anyway, both on and off the court. And Knight was first and foremost a teacher of the game. \nCompared to other schools, sports plays a minor role in the lives of students at IU. And a majority of students feel academics is the primary reason for being here.\nIU basketball is a tradition at Indiana, as is Little 500, IU Sing and the IU Opera Theatre. IU prides itself on traditions, and basketball has survived and thrived for more than 100 years.\nMy question to Brand, then, is why reduce a program that is clean, well-respected, well-liked and unpretentious? And why, even if this "academics first" proposal is meant to apply to all teams, should Brand be the one to lead it?\nPerhaps programs at UNLV, UNC or Duke need reform, but IU's program certainly does not -- or was firing Coach Knight not enough?\n"We also need to work on the chain of command from the president to the athletics director to the coaches," the article quoted Brand as saying. \nIf I were to read into the subtext (a theater term for what Brand is really saying), Brand seems to be saying, "I'm the boss here, and if I want basketball to be a minor program, it sure as hell will be!"\nBut who knows, I'm only a theater student. Perhaps I need to do more research -- or maybe I'll go to rehearsal.