Chronicle of Higher Education Op-Ed: My University Values Football More Than Education, by Sigman Byrd (Colorado):
At the University of Colorado at Boulder, athletics gets all the attention — and funding.
Walking to my office in Folsom Field, the University of Colorado football stadium in Boulder, I pass the new $15-million scoreboard-video screen towering into the sky above campus. The screen is 130 feet wide and 36 feet tall, perched atop 10 sections of the south side of the stadium. One of the largest in the NCAA, it highlights all the play-by-play action of the Buffaloes football team, and, according to Sports Illustrated, has made the University of Colorado (CU) “a top destination for fans and athletes” and helps “enhance one of the best game day atmospheres in the country.”
Making the university attractive undoubtedly was the administration’s main driver when it hired former NFL star Deion Sanders to lead the struggling football team. By all accounts, Sanders loves it at CU. And why wouldn’t he? He has a five-year, $29.5-million contract, and the Champions Center where he works is a stunning, five-story, state-of-the-art building that cost $181 million. The center houses an elite, world-class program in sports medicine and sports performance, indoor practice field and track, Olympic-quality training facilities, lockers, weight rooms, and gleaming office spaces.
I wish I could say the same about the CU where I work. … In the corridor where my office is located, under the 50-yard-line bleachers of Folsom Field, the linoleum is scuffed, beat-up looking, and has been patched with a metal sheet. One of the acoustic ceiling tiles has been punched out, exposing an array of water pipes. A ceiling light is busted, and the white, cinderblock walls give the path to my office the feeling of being in an underground bunker. The waiting area for students is filled with an odd assortment of abandoned office chairs. When students find my office, they always express surprise. “You work here?” they ask. “I had no idea this place existed.” …
Over the years, my colleagues and I have repeatedly approached administrators to explain our frustration. All to no avail. Various deans and provosts have expressed sympathy and lauded the work we do, but their words sound as sincere as Vladimir Putin telling the world he wants peace in Ukraine. “The university has no money,” they tell us.
In March 2024, faculty received an email from the administration that stressed the university’s need for transformation and resilience in tough times. The email referred to deficits and the “hard financial realities” many large universities face. “The good news is,” it said, “that CU Boulder is facing these headwinds from a fiscally sound position. However, to avoid the struggles faced by our aforementioned peers, we must act.” Besides that the message mirrored countless other messages we have received over the years from department chairs, deans, provosts, chancellors, and regents, my first response was: “What monkey tricks do you want us to pull out of our asses now?” From my position down in steerage, it appears the university is already in motion — but not in a direction one would call transformational.
CU’s athletic director, Rick George, gambled when he brought Deion Sanders to Boulder, and every indication is that he won big. According to the Boulder Daily Camera, the university has experienced a massive revenue increase — to the sum of $90.6 million — because of excitement surrounding Sanders and the football team. Ticket sales have increased by $20 million, while donations to the Buff Club, the leadership giving program attached to the CU athletic department, have increased by $7.8 million. Merchandise sales have increased 51 percent, and national media coverage has exploded. In addition, donations to the university are up more than $2 million, and student applications have increased 20 percent. ..
[I]f the university is sincere in its desire to educate, it should reward those who work most closely with students, training them to think and write, mentoring them, and encouraging them to care about and consider deeply the life choices they make. Teachers like me are the trained professionals and content specialists whose primary role at the university is to develop citizens, leaders, and human beings who can empathize, problem-solve, visualize connections and networks, and imagine a better tomorrow. My question is: Has the university forgotten its purpose?
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