Former UNC System Presidents, Bill Friday and Dick Spangler spoke to the UNC Charlotte Faculty Council on Thursday February 21st to try and raise up the faculty against the Chancellor as he makes his decision on adding a football program. But, unfortunately for them, the public participation period of the process is over. There were open meetings and forums for Faculty, Alumni and Students throughout the Football Committees’ decision process which Friday and Spangler chose not to attend.
Their arguments were antiquated at best as Friday decried college sports as morally corrupt because they “…even played on Sundays”. When one parent asked if their child should transfer from UNC Charlotte because he wants a college football experience, Spangler responded that this was the reason we had Chapel Hill and NC State (which drew gasps/groans from the audience).
Faculty were clearly in support of adding a football program… or at least not opposed to it.
Below I’ve posted some audio excerpts from the Question and Answer session which was the best part of the whole thing. The other audio clip below is Spangler’s explanation of how the NC legislature has been soooo generous to UNC Charlotte. In fact, they were generous enough to allow UNCCH and NCSU to have twice as many square feet per student as Charlotte (imagine taking our campus, keeping the same number of people and doubling the size) and generous enough to ensure that UNC Charlotte has the lowest amount of funding per student of any school in NC.
There are many that claim people in Raleigh and Chapel Hill wish to keep Charlotte down because it will soon be the most desirable school in the state. This speech didn’t do much to dissuade that viewpoint because Friday and Spangler seem to think that if we already have a large state school, we don’t need another one…. or at least the western part of the state doesn’t. Maybe you have already figured out where I stand on the issue but just in case you need more info here is a past blog post on why football helps academics.
Oh, and it is always helpful to have those student football poll results lying around:
More than one out of every three students 8299 (38.6%) participated in the SGA Football Poll. This information has been presented to the Chancellor, Athletic Director, and the University Board of Trustees for their interpretations and knowledge of the official student opinion. As the administration moves forward in the consideration of adding a college football team to the Charlotte 49er Athletic Department, the results of this poll will be held as the definitive opinion of the student body for 2007.
- 22% of students voted in support of no fee increase
- 78% of students voted in support of a fee increase
- 52% of students voted in support of paying at least $200 per year
- 59% of students would attend 5 to 6 home games
- 72% of students would travel more than 5 miles to attend home games
- 56% of students would travel more than 10 miles to attend home games
- 59% of students would be more interested in 49er Athletics as a result of football
- 12% of students would not consider attending football games after graduation
- 62% of students attended at least one college football game at another school last season
[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/17778183/view]
[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/17778213/view]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7Y8WSEykGY]
Spangler bashes the football committee
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=WWqqnuvaOdE]
Had to get ready for the talk by Friday and Spangler in every fashion…
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:08 am
“thats why we have State and Chapel Hill”…..you have got to be freaking kidding me Spangler. Those days are over sir.