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 Athletic Director Norwood Teague showed his sports facilities plan to regents yesterday, he sparked a discussion over how successfully the U could juggle -- or marry -- academics and athletics in the competitive world of fund-raising.

(The $190 million proposal would be privately funded, Teague stressed.)

The presentation started off with the athletic director highlighting athletes' academic accomplishments. Among them, he said, graduation rates "are the highest they've ever been." The U had also improved in the Academic Performance Rate, which tracks eligibility and retention of college athletes.

Teague later discussed two projects that seemed to continue the theme 

The new center, he said, would have larger computer labs, tutoring rooms, office space and private study areas.

The second project was a dining facility called a "training table" that would serve meals to meet athletes' special nutritional needs.

Teague said NCAA rules require that one meal be open to the public.

He told regents of a trip he took to see Nebraska's:

(Again: Athletes are part of the student body, too.)

But regents had also just heard a presentation, prior to Teague's, that discussed the need for other facilities -- those for research. Regent Patricia Simmons asked Kaler how he would prioritize all of those construction needs and raise funds accordingly.

(My reading of her question: How will you decide whether to push athletic projects or academic/research projects when you ask donors for money?)

Regent John Frobenius suggested marrying the two:

(He'd also mentioned how attendees at a university athletics-related event in St. Cloud had remarked how impressed they were with the emphasis the U placed on academics.)

But regent Abdul Omari, a Humphrey School doctoral student, made an observation that countered the athletes-are-students-too image.

Athletes are busy morning till night, he said. He wondered whether they're too isolated from the rest of the student population -- and thus have little interaction with it.

Convincing donors and the public that athletes and athletic facilities are truly part of the university might mean ... making athletes an actual part of the university.

Education News

On Campus Blog

Alex Friedrich

Author

When University of Minnesota Athletic Director Norwood Teague showed his sports facilities plan to regents yesterday, he sparked a discussion over how successfully the U could juggle — or marry — academics and athletics in the competitive world of fund-raising. (The $190 million proposal would be privately funded, Teague stressed.) The presentation started off with…

How will the University of Minnesota juggle athletic and academic fund-raising?

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