The University of Nike Football
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Post temporarily removed by webmaster. Nothing to see here, citizen. Move along.
posted by Burton at 7:22 AM
Burton Speaks
Irony: i·ro·ny n The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.
I'm Burton from Portland, Oregon, United States. I'm 33 and live in the Portland Metro Area. I work hard. I drive fast. I play often. I'm sarcastic, appreciate irony, and find humor in even the darkest of events. I'm non-traditional. I question authority. I'm a know-it-all and a planner. And most days, I wake up thinking the world is full of fundamentally good people... and have a lot of problems when I'm proven wrong. Any other questions?
5 Comments:
Well said, and I agree completely. Sadly, though, there are a LOT of universities that do this kind of crap, but it sucks when it's our alma mater.
Well said, it's a sad testament to where we as a society have our priorities when cities are willing to foot the bill for multi-million dollar sports arenas while their schools are being closed for lack of funding.
I agree with your sentiments that donors need to focus more on funding the educational aspect over the athletics, but I don't see the logic in never donating to the University anymore. Because Knight donated a large sum towards athletics, you're going to punish the university? What was the University supposed to do? Refuse the donation?
How are your stopping donations going to help the situation? It seems that all that will do is hurt the academics even further. Can you round up enough people to follow suit as a protest? And what exactly, will your demands to the university be?
It's not like the university doesn't make an effort towards increasing private donations towards academics. Frohnmayer's $600 million campaign which is nearing its goal is mostly for academics. Lorry Lokey's generous donations to Oregon academics has not exactly gone without notice.
I will continue my donations towards the university academics because it needs help. I would plead that you do the same. For the alma mater and the future of its current/prospective students. I'd rather we not just give up on them.
Just as Mr. Knight, you have the opportunity to spend your millions pretty much any way you'd like. So what if you never donate a single penny to the UO. Does that make you a better person? ...Knight was shaped partially by his time in sports at the UO. You have an opportunity to give back to the Computer and Info Science department,which has help shape you, but you won't because...
Give back... oh hell no. They took plenty during that time. I feel that no student owes the university anything.
A donation is to support a practice you feel worthy. If Burton no longer feels that UO is a worthy cause for his hard earned (or soon to be hard earned) money then why would he want to continue to sponsor them?
As far as the money that Knight donates, it's up to him what his money is used for. I'm sure there is some greed involved there to for I'm sure there will be a return on that investment to a degree.
Universities need sports. It's the best marketing they can do. It sure gets the name of the school out there. I'm not against it, but it sure does seem like two different entities. I would rather see the teams have a different name than the school and just be affiliated with them. Team green, supported by UO.
Money will go where the interest lies. Why do our sports players earn so much? Because we pay to see them play. We buy their merchandises. If we didn't care about them then they wouldn't have as much money.
Now that I've completely lost my train of thought, I'll get back to work.
And to think... I wasn't going to even post a reply when I first read Burton's post :)
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