Higher education is incredibly important part to innovation that will make the U.S. competitive in a global economy.. Professors are offered tenure because it allegedly protects free thinking, the creation of new ideas, and innovation.
The country’s higher education is assumed to be the country’s the hotbed of open-mindedness.
The leadership of our colleges and universities have demonstrated their “free-thinking” and open-mindedness in the management of college athletics. And it is very telling.
The Daily Camera published an article on September 26, 2011 entitled, “Oregon State President Opens up about PAC-12 Decision”. The league was considering a second expansion in less than a year to include 16 teams. The article stated…
“Oregon State President Edward Ray said he would personally take a look at anything that made sense, even though there was a strong sentiment among the PAC-12 schools that expansion wasn’t in the league’s immediate best interests.”
Ray is the chair of the PAC-12 CEO Executive Group, which includes leaders from each of the league’s schools, and is responsible for governance of the conference. In the above statement he appears to be willing to consider various viewpoints.
Later in the article Ray was quoted, “But I know that some of my colleagues said, ‘You know what? I don’t care what any of the facts are, I don’t want anything to change.’ ”
What kind of statement does this make about the open-mindedness, priorities, and leadership of the country’s top ACADEMIC institutions. If this is the thought process for athletics, what is their thought process for for making big-league academic decisions?