Yesterday's paper reported that the search for a men's basketball coach has been put on an unusually accelerated schedule outside the normal personnel hiring policies.  No reason was given for this exception.  I am aware that the newspaper doesn't always get things straight, so I'm asking for clarification from whoever has the facts of the matter.

The story concerns me for two reasons:   First, I am always alarmed at administrative departures from stated personnel policy for which there is no stated rationale.  Is this another case of inequity in treatment based on some political concern or personal connection?  Why must academic departments proceed with searches at an almost glacial pace because of personnel procedures, but basketball coaches can be hired very quickly?

Second, are we offering the same exorbitant salary to the applicants that the previous basketball coach received, or are we offering a more reasonable figure ("reasonable" here means more in line with salaries elsewhere on campus), or are we offering an even more obscene amount of money than last time?  Is the rush to fill the position an attempt to prevent any discussion about whether or not a men's basketball coach is worth as much to UTC's mission as, say, 3 or 4 full-time, tenure-track biology professors?  I use the biology professor as my unit of comparison because I know that not only are they underpaid like almost all of our faculty, but also there aren't enough of them to satisfy the demand for classes by our students.  (Dr. Nelson can address the actual numbers of students turned away every semester much better than I can, but I know from students I talk to who need those classes that there's a chronic problem in accommodating them all.)

I am NOT saying that having good basketball coaches is not important.  What I am saying is that having good basketball coaches is MERELY important to UTC's mission, but having enough biology professors (or professors in any other academic program we offer) is ESSENTIAL to our mission.  The current budget crisis should mandate that we fund the essentials first, before we move on to the important nonessentials.

Melissa Burchfield