Sports should be about life lessons, not money

Editor,

As tuition continues to rise, and students and professors struggle to make ends meet, UNM sees it fit to pay the new men's basketball head coach $975,000 a year. How disgraceful. Where are our priorities? Has anyone checked the salary of UNM professors lately, or the ongoing struggle of our part-time professors who receive few if any benefits? The men's team has produced several players who have no regard for UNM rules or the laws of our society.

The rate of male athletes who graduate from the University is very low. This is a sign of failure. With accountability being the buzzword of the decade, I see little being achieved. How many student athletes do you think will actually go on to play professional sports? Have we provided them with the learning and life skills that they will need to succeed outside of the sports arena? I think not.

Don Flanagan, the women's basketball head coach, continues to produce a team whose members consistently have a high academic performance, as well as conference championships and NCAA tournament showings, all for a fraction of the men's head coach salary. Does this really make sense to you? What about the track, baseball, volleyball, softball, tennis, gymnastics and other team sport coaches and athletes - are they not equally as important?

I enjoy our school's sports and feel the programs are an important part of campus life. I also feel these sports programs should provide students with lessons in leadership and responsibility, gearing them for successful futures. Isn't this what education is about? Preparing students to become productive citizens and make sensible choices in their lives that will better both their own lives and the lives of those around them is imperative. If these lessons are not being taught or respected, we will continue to produce uneducated people who think they can get what they want by the use of unworthy means, who in turn act as poor role models for our students and community. Is this a message UNM is comfortable portraying?

I appeal to you to rethink what the priorities of UNM truly are and to stand by those who seek to provide a healthy system of education and activities for students who endeavor to meet the turbulent demands and standards that our world places upon them. Our future as a city, state and country rests heavily on these issues.

Gerri Barnhart

UNM student