I was following the discussion on UTC athletics with increasing interest.
As  well as Dr. Hiestand, I attended a great technical school in Russia
with no big athletics programs whatsoever. Their athletics department
existed only to make sure the students took their PE classes once a
week.  But academically it is a GREAT school.

Let me share with you my experience 3 days ago. I was in Proffits store on
Hixson pike, and wanted to purchase an item  with sale price 75%off of
$420. Unfortunately, the sale conditions were not in their computer, so
computer showed a wrong number.  To my surprise it took 45 minutes,  3
(three!!!!) sales people, and 2 (two!!!) calculators to figure out the
amount of money I was supposed to pay.  What an embarrassment !!!  I heard
about similar stories, but now I am a witness of one. Honestly, I cannot
imagine this happening in Russia, where there are elementary schools for
elementary knowledge, academic schools for academics and special athletics
schools with state and/or private support for athletics.

May be we should concentrate on teaching students essentials, like Math,
and try to raise some donor money for that purpose to improve the current
situation?

Just my 2 cents...

Tatiana