Voting is one way, I guess, to get a non-scientific sample poll of student
opinion. I wonder, though, if the debate about athletics at UTC would
benefit from a real poll, presumably one administered by our own Center for
Applied Social Research. I'd like to see the results of questions posed to
students along the lines of:

1. Do you have an athletic scholarship to attend UTC?
2. Did the quality of the athletic programs at UTC have anything to do with
your decision to attend UTC?
3. Do you regularly read the sports section of the local newspaper?
4. How often do you attend sporting events on campus?
5. Do you participate in any intramurals or club sports on campus?
6. Given the unwillingness of the state to continue funding collegiate
athletics, do you think the University would be wise to divert resources
from NCAA sports to enhance its intramural/club sport offerings?

I imagine it would be enlightening as well to see the results of a poll
administered to our alumni:

1. Have you donated money to UTC since becoming an alumnus?  Regularly
donated?
2. Would you be likely to give more money to UTC if the school had a winning
football team?
3. Do you regularly read the Sports section of the local newspaper?
4. If UTC dropped out of the Southern Conference altogether, would this
decrease your current level of monetary support for the university?
5. Since becoming an alumnus, have you ever attended a UTC sporting event?
6. To what extent does a "good" athletic program contribute to the measure
of a "good" university?

Similar questions might be asked of our major donors and other involved
parties. Clearly I'm no social scientist, and I realize there are many more
and better questions that should be asked than those above, but I think the
data from such polling would be useful when it comes time to make crucial
decisions about the direction of our athletic programs.

Gavin Townsend
(who loves to read a good IMPACT STUDY every now and then)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonathan Looney" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, April 24, 2004 4:05 PM
Subject: Re: [UTCSTAFF] UTC Students Thumbs Down on Athletic Fee


> At 09:23 PM 4/23/2004 -0400, Joe Dumas wrote:
> >http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_49669.asp
> >
> >Can we, finally, move as a university to eliminate the main cause of
> >Athletics deficits and the main problem with Title IX compliance?  The
> >students have emphatically said "no new taxes" for sports.  It is time
> >for football at UTC to go the way of the dinosaurs before the entire
> >Athletics Department goes bankrupt.
> >
> >If anyone else out there thinks it is time to follow ETSU's lead in
> >retiring intercollegiate football in order to concentrate on sports in
> >which we can be competitive on a leaner budget, now is the time to let
> >Chancellor Stacy and Athletic Director Sloan know how you feel.
> >
>
> Well, I'll play devil's advocate and disagree. If we dropped football, we
> would (just like ETSU) be booted out of the Southern Conference, which
> would have a negative impact on ALL OTHER sports and the student athletes
> that participate in those other sports. The only other conference that
> would take ETSU is the Atlantic Sun conference, which is where UTC would
> have to try to join as well. That conference has teams such as Mercer,
> Gardner-Webb, Campbell, and others. The better teams in that conference
are
> leaving (Georgia State, Central Florida, Florida Atlantic), which will
> likely cost the Atlantic Sun their automatic NCAA basketball tournament
> bid. Ask coaches Wes Moore and John Shulman how much fun it would be to
> recruit student-athletes to a team in a conference that can't earn a bid
to
> the NCAA tournament. Wouldn't it have been great for the Lady Mocs to have
> gone 29-3, and have to hope for an at-large bid from the NCAA tournament
> committee?  There is already grumbling among some ETSU basketball players
> that they will leave if the A-Sun loses their automatic NCAA bid. With
ETSU
> leaving the Southern Conference, there aren't many rivals left for the
Mocs
> to play and I'd love to see us move to the Ohio Valley Conference. The
> travel would be much less, but they'd have no interest in UTC without
> football.
>
> What does this have to do with the mission of our university? Not much I
> guess, but since I am a UTC graduate and an employee, I take pride in our
> athletic teams, and I didn't want it to appear that everyone that works
> here is in favor of dropping football.  I actually went to football and
> basketball games when I was a student, and I still do.
>
>
> Jonathan Looney
> Director - Student Financial Aid
> University of Tennessee at Chattanooga