Dissent

IU is in a unique position among colleges and universities. IU President Myles Brand announced 13 months ago a plan called "Academics First" that would place new emphasis on making education the focus of IU and other schools across the country. The plan is a reasonable solution to a fundamental problem at institutions of higher education -- that athletics often overshadows academics. \nRecent proposals among several athletic conferences, including the Big Ten, have sought to enact several reforms to make student-athletes students first and athletes second. These Academics First initiatives are not the end of athletics, as some critics claim, but reasonable steps toward achieving the mission of academic institutions.\nAmong the proposals are the following:\n• Athletics schedules should be set around class schedules, with fewer games when students should be in class.\n• Fewer commercial endorsements and advertisements on television is a welcome change that would reduce the number of time-outs during games.\n• Athletics departments should be held to the same accounting and budgetary standards as any other university department.\n• Scholarships should not be revoked for poor athletic performance but instead only for poor academic performance.\nIU presents a wide array of opportunities for intercollegiate and intramural athletics, but a school of 90,670 students -- 35,474 at IUB -- also has a myriad of arts and entertainment events. \nA university's academic mission should come first.