In her Sports of the Times column on Sunday, Selena Roberts laments the trend in aggressive fundraising by college athletics programs. While the argument made in the column is fuzzy, muddled and far from compelling, I agree that the vast amounts of money poured into college athletics programs does nothing to benefit the educational mission of the universities and a case could be make that this kind of fund raising actually hurts a university's academics by siphoning off funds from academic uses.
The reason I even mention her column at all is not because of her position on university fundraising, but her misleading and/or sloppy writing. Specifically, about midway through the column Ms. Roberts writes: "The math book doesn’t lie. The Chronicle of Higher Education released a report last week that detailed how gifts to 119 of the largest athletic departments in the country have, in some cases, tripled in recent years, but donations to academics have remained flat."
The above passage purports to compare the change in gifts over the last few years between academics and athletics; and while it states that academic gifts have remained flat it never provides corresponding information for athletic giving, it only says that such "gifts . . . have, in some cases, tripled in recent years." I can't help but wonder what the actual amount was for athletic gifts why such amount is not presented.
Also after a reading the release from The Chronicle of Higher Education that Ms. Roberts cites for the above statement, I discovered that far from remaining flat, academic gifts increased over 38% from 1998 to 2003.
This morning I emailed Ms. Roberts these same comments. I wonder if I will receive a reply? I will let you know if I do.
full text of Ms. Roberts' column can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/sports/ncaafootball/30roberts.html?ei=5087%0A&em=&en=fa2ca5cf32332b3c&ex=1191384000&pagewanted=print
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