Inside Higher Ed Publishes Malekoff’s Column on Athletics Scandals
A column by faculty member Robert Malekoff about the resignation of UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp following a number of athletics scandals has been published by Inside Higher Ed.
Many fans of North Carolina’s Tar Heels believed their campus was above the scandals that have occurred at other institutions, Robert wrote in the Sept. 19 column. “But what happened at Chapel Hill and to Thorp could have happened at any major university that chases the often-false glory associated with big-time college sports in America.”
Robert, associate professor and chair of the Department of Sport Studies, recounts the response when he asked a university president why he and his colleagues hadn’t done more to clean up college sports. “He confessed that a university CEO who endeavored to take on big-time football or basketball did so at the risk of spending so much political capital as to be rendered powerless in addressing more important needs such as student affordability, funding for research and facilities, support to attract top faculty, etc.”
Ensuring that athletics are a legitimate part of their universities is the responsibility of trustees rather than presidents, Robert wrote.
