UM President Schlissel: "Athletics Isn't Part of Our Mission Statement"
In case you are wondering why Krazy Jims had to move his Blimpy Burgers. It is funny that the story shows a picture of UM football fans, yet Munger made no appropriations for athletics or undergraduate studies. Most big time donors want UM to be like Stanford and the Ivies academically, not like Alabama.
Stanford is actually an interesting role model for UM athletics and academics in many ways. Unfortunately the commercialization of college football, and now basketball, make this very difficult for the universities.
Well yeah I don't think that anyone aims to be Alabama academically. They are the gold standard for football nowadays though and it wouldn't hurt us academically to win 3 NCs. Maybe some academics would be upset that it's taking press away from their programs but otherwise it doesn't affect their ability to do their jobs. Was it hurting Michigan academically when we won 10 national championships from 1900 to 1950 or when we won 2 hockey national championships and one football national championship in the late 90s?
Not sure how you draw this conclusion.
My point was that the academic reputation of MIchigan, especially grad schools, is what is sacred to this institution of higher learning.This is what draws the huge donors who want their names associated with surgery units, cancer research wards, business schools, etc.
All sports are subserviant to academics. Football is great entertainment for students, alums, and walmart wolverines, and is a nice recruiting tool for getting undergrads. The cyclical nature of UM sports teams winning won't make or break Michigan's admission rates or the pocket books of its donors.
Academics definitely would prefer UM to be sucessful in all sports including football, but don't lose sleep over it if they don't.
The frustration for many UM alums over 40, and perhaps some of the Regents, is that DB is trying to turn every home game into a Super Bowl, when what makes college football great is that it is not the Super Bowl. This does not diminish the high marks he gets for improving all of the athletic facilites
That story's more than a year old.
Also the secondary point was grad schools are where reputations of universities are made.
The year old story helped support that flow of posts. No need to snarky.
Oh, I thought from your post that you thought it was news. I also can't ever tell who anyone is responding to if it's not within one or two posts of the target because the comment layout is ridiculous.
The uniquness of Michigan rests on a triad of Academic excellence, Research excellence, and Athletic excellence.
I can't think of another University in the entire country that can combine achievement at the highest level in all three areas the way Michgian does.
There may be some Universities that are slightly better in one of the areas, perhaps even two. But not all three. There really is a "Michigan difference".
Academic excellence, Research excellence, and Athletic excellence should be in our mission statement.
Stanford regularly rates above Michigan (depending on publication) in both academic and research - and they kill us in athletics:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NACDA_Directors%27_Cup#NCAA_Division_I
Good for him. The athletic department will be fine without him meddling in it. Also, and I say this as a rabid football fan, how many times a man can run past a white line on the field isn't even close to being as important as how the university operates as an academic institutiton.