Panel discusses new strategic plan for athletics and physical education

Professor Wolfgang Sachse discusses the financial costs related to intercollegiate athletics at the faculty forum Feb. 17 in Call Alumni Auditorium. Robert Barker/University Photography

By Christopher Greaves '01

A panel was convened Feb. 17 in the David L. Call Alumni Auditorium of Kennedy Hall for a discussion of the Strategic Plan for Athletics and Physical Education, a proposal drafted by the Faculty Advisory Committee on Athletics and Physical Education. The plan will be considered by the Cornell Board of Trustees in March.

[Editor's note: At its March meeting, the board of trustees actually discussed a final report from its own Task Force on Athletics, chaired by Trustee Robert D. Kennedy.]

The panel, organized by George Conneman, professor of agricultural, resource and managerial economics (ARME) and the committee's faculty chairman, included: Charles Moore, director of athletics; Dale Grossman, lecturer in ARME; Carol McFadden, lecturer in animal physiology; William Cox, professor of soil, crop and atmospheric sciences; and Wolfgang Sachse, professor of theoretical and applied mechanics. The session was called to order by Tobias de Boer, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

Panel members gave presentations on different aspects of athletics at Cornell, including information on the strategic plan, and they responded to audience questions and questions submitted earlier by e-mail.

The plan's specific objective is to establish a Cornell intercollegiate win-loss record that is consistently in the top three in the Ivy League by the year 2002 -- a goal that panelists seemed to agree is unachievable without increased financial support from the university. Cornell's current allocation to the athletic department is 40 percent of the department's total expenses, the smallest percentage of support in the Ivy League. Sachse pointed out that only $5.8 million of the department's $15.9 million budget is covered by the university. The remaining $10.1 million in revenues comes from gifts, investments, ticket sales and direct user fees. According to the draft of the strategic plan, this disparity has resulted in "staff [who] do not have the equipment, training or administrative support to ... conduct business ... in today's ever-changing workplace."

McFadden observed that Cornell's intercollegiate athletic teams, in the Ivy League, currently "rank near the bottom in all of the measured sports statistics." She proposed some adjustments in admissions procedures that might allow Cornell to compete more successfully with the other Ivies.

"Timely notification" in the admission process for elite student-athletes, she said, would help offset "hinting," a practice coaches at peer institutions might have adopted. Schools whose coaches "hint" by telling applicants that they have been accepted before the traditional April 1 deadline may have a competitive advantage in acquiring those student-athletes. McFadden argued that if all of Cornell's colleges followed a rolling-admissions process, that would essentially solve the problem of competing for athletes.

In addition, McFadden said she feels that financial aid awards need to be reworked in order to compete with Ivies that are wooing students by offering need-based grants instead of loans. And she concluded that the name recognition and exposure generated by Cornell's athletic success would affect the university positively, attracting more students and boosting alumni giving.

One audience member expressed concern about an initiative that would give the Department of Athletics and Physical Education the ability to override the admissions office in special cases -- a measure that could conceivably lower the admissions criteria for athletes. Sachse answered that the GPA of student-athletes is, at present, almost indistinguishable from the rest of the Cornell population. And Moore emphasized that the proposed changes in admissions procedures would not diminish academic standards, and he pointed out that the difference in academic index between athletes and non-athletes at Cornell is the smallest in the Ivy League. He also said the plan suggests nothing that is not "already available at all other Ivy institutions."

Besides containing provisions to bolster Cornell's intercollegiate competitiveness, the plan also includes some guidelines that might benefit the university's "weekend" and club athletes. Cox discussed a new fitness center for students and staff that would alleviate weekend crowding in Helen Newman Hall, and Moore mentioned that while the plan does not contain any provisions for club sports (activities traditionally funded by the Student Assembly Finance Commission), the department is studying how access to fitness centers can be provided to club sport members at lower fees.

Copies of the draft strategic plan are available in 315 Day Hall, and additional information, including questions to the committee not presented during the forum, is online at http://UniversityFaculty.cornell.edu.