By Barb Shelly, Kansas City Star editorial page columnist
At a time when people are increasingly questioning the rising costs of an education at both private and public colleges, along comes the University of Notre Dame with a multi-million buyout for its football coach.
Charlie Weis will leave with six years left on his contract -- and why a university chock full of smart people signed a football coach to a 10-year deal is beyond me.
It's unclear right now how much the coach will walk away with after failing to return the Fighting Irish to the glory days. Most reports are saying $18 million. Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel puts the number at a possible $30 million.
Wow. Either amount would finance a lot of scholarships for students wanting a chance at that $50,000-a-year Notre Dame education.
I realize that colleges operate athletics programs from separate pots of money, and much of it comes from boosters. Still, there is something amiss when a university that touts a commitment to social justice on its website lefts a coach walk away with all those millions.
One articulate voice of protest comes from John O’Callaghan, a philosophy professor, who has a letter published today in the campus newspaper, The Observer.
In light of the near universal enthusiasm for the notion that Notre Dame should buy out the remaining term of Coach Weis’s contract and spend whatever it takes to improve the football team, here is a thought in this season of Advent and in praise of folly: In these times of continuing economic difficulty, when so many faculty but especially staff who love and have dedicated their lives to the Catholic education we aim to promote, continue to experience hardship amongst themselves, and are either falling behind or by the wayside, it strikes us as not only unjust but frankly obscene to pay an employee millions of dollars to do nothing.
So we expect the coach to remain and honor his contract, as we intend to honor it by retaining him. And if that means we lose more football games, so be it, for the Lord did not ask us to be successful, he asked us to be faithful.
It doesn't work that way, as Notre Dame proved today. But thanks to O'Callaghan for expressing the contrarian view so well.
Follow Barb Shelly on Twitter.
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Notre Dame is only in a
Notre Dame is only in a position to have a great education because of it's football program. In the 60's and 70's the school was a good school, but not a great top 20 caliber university. More and more people went there because of football. Not to mention if the new coach they hire makes 2 BCS bowls, the buyout will pay for itself.
(No subject)
a private institution
...and a private business...
Tom Ryan
The Crossroads
"We're with you, win or tie"
("Cheer, cheer, for old Notre Dame")
It seems like only yesterday
("You bring the Notre, I'll bring the dame")
that Notre Dame alumnae were upset
("Send somebody out for gin")
because President Obama was addressing
("Don't let a sober person in")
the new graduates and besmirching the
("We never stagger, we never fall")
high moral standards of the university.
("We sober up on wood alchohol")
Now we learn that their high, moral, standards
("While our loyal sons and daughters")
are based on wins and losses
("March on to victory")
on the athletic field.
Sorry Babs...
You, like the big 0, the messiah, the signer of the porkulous bill, don't like CONTRACTS. Your annointed one got the lib courts to toss out the bond-holders' contracts, that won't be the case here...
Also, you may want to correct the error in your last sentence of paragraph 5. It reads "lefts a coach walk away with all those millions." It should off course be LETS a coach. Perhaps a Freudian slip by a "leftie"???? This is indeed an early Christmas present Babs...
I anxiously await the down-trodden professors in the ivory towers to agree to lower their salaries, increase class sizes, do-away with sabbaticals etc. to help the "poor" student get a less expensive education. Oh, that's right, they have CONTRACTS, don't they?
Whatever Barb's salary arrangements with the Star
are - they apparently are too much. Readers should protest to the Star that they would pay someone anything to write such dribble.
Seriously Babs, What business is it of yours?
I wasn't there but I am pretty sure no one held a gun to the head of Notre Dame officials and made them sign off on this contract. It was, I am pretty sure, negotiated in good faith by both parties.
If the governing bodies of the school made a mistake, it is their's to live with it. See that is the way private enterprise works. If their tuition becomes to expensive they will lose market, and correct. The free market will dictate how they operate.
Might I suggest that if you are worried about out of control spending you direct your attention to Congress and the President. They drop $18 million for coffee and doughtnuts every day.
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Did Barb....
....spend one megabyte of blog space in discussing the Ruth Bates settlement of $500,000 by the City Council in these "hard times". I don't think so.
Again. If it happens somewhere else, its a travesty. If it happens in KC, silence.