Bye-bye Brand, bye-bye hypocrisy

I was born to IU alums in 1981, the same year the men's basketball team won the NCAA championship. My earliest memories are of being dressed in IU T-shirts and diapers. IU's 1992 run to the Final Four remains one of my most vivid childhood memories.\nSo I wasn't thrilled when IU President Myles Brand fired Bobby Knight. But I will be the first to admit that some of Knight's coaching methods were, um, unorthodox. And I avidly supported Mike Davis' team from the beginning, because IU basketball is about a team, not a coach. \nBut it was Brand's evasion of laws in order to fire Coach Knight that first clued me in to our President's hypocrisy. Brand openly admitted to holding meetings with trustees in small groups to get around open meetings laws, thereby preventing the public from learning of the issues at hand in a public university.\nIllegal? No. Shady? Yes. \nMonths after firing Coach Knight, President Brand called for collegiate athletic reform in a speech that received national attention. Brand proposed less commercialization in college sports. That doesn't sound bad. But how is IU shunning the evils of athletic commercialism? By sewing the Nike swoosh onto its uniforms. \nChristopher Simpson, former vice president for public affairs and government relations, defended Brand's motives for making the speech by saying, "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." This explains why Brand is abandoning his position as a leader in the best research university in the country to become a leader in the reform of collegiate athletics. \nBrand's hypocrisy doesn't stop at athletics. Our soon-to-be former president is a self-proclaimed champion of alcohol education and policy reform. Where exactly are these increased educational efforts that Brand mentioned in his IDS column (Aug. 30, "More mixed messages")? I recall being an Alcohol-Drug Peer Educator in my residence hall and receiving less than half the pay of the hall's Community Educator. The difference between the CUE and myself was that he educated residents on diversity, and I educated on substance abuse. The only message I got from the University was that the health of students isn't as important as diversity. Shouldn't both be valued equally at IU?\nI could go on, listing more examples of Brand's inability to say what he means. I could tell stories of salary increases and tuition hikes. But alas, I have a word limit. So I close this column knowing that in a few months I will be graduating and leaving IU along with President Brand. He will head the NCAA (because he loves sports so much), and I will dive into a job search (because I love being interviewed so much). Now that I'm about to follow in the steps of my parents and become an alumna, I know the reputation of my alma matter could potentially impact the ways in which employers will view me. \nFor the first time, I understand the importance of a university's reputation to alumni. It has less to do with basketball than I thought. A university president is one of the most recognizable figures associated with an academic institution. Could IU find a more hypocritical president than Myles Brand if it tried? For the sake of both students and alumni, I certainly hope not.