Vanderbilt's decision to eliminate its athletic department is a symbolic change that is not as revolutionary as much of the media would lead everyone to believe.
"A few years ago, members of the Vanderbilt Board of Trustees came to visit Duke and studied our structure for athletics," Duke athletic director Joe Alleva wrote in an e-mail.
Indeed, the Commodores have opted to emulate a method of running big-time athletic programs at a big-time academic school, copying a structure Duke adopted around 15 years ago, though with a less conspicuous title.
Duke's athletic department is "thoroughly integrated into the Duke administration," which includes financial reporting, fund raising, maintenance, media relations and academic support. Alleva is in charge of all varsity, club and intramural sports, and the golf course. In short, Alleva explained, the athletic department at Duke is technically identical to any other department on campus.
Vanderbilt's revamping will develop a similar setup, though with a lucid goal in mind.
"We have allowed a separate culture to exist for athletes, and I believe this finally has to end," Vanderbilt Chancellor Gordon Gee decreed last week.
The impetus of this change is purportedly going to be the "reorganization of intercollegiate athletics and intramural sports in one department as part of the Division of Student Life and University Affairs," according to The Washington Post. In other words, Vanderbilt will be tucking athletics under the covers of a more academic-sounding department.
Gee's intentions are certainly respectable, but how is the integration of an athletic department going to alter the way students interact? And how is this move--which is, essentially, a simple renaming of an athletic department by firmly placing it under the school's jurisdiction--going to, according to Gee, "Bring some balance back into the nature of intercollegiate athletics"?
I sincerely doubt that much will change at Vanderbilt in terms of the experience of the school's student-athletes, their success on the field or in the classroom, or the athletic (or academic) reputation of the school as a whole. Alleva is skeptical, as well.
"As far as Vandy is concerned, as long as they are playing intercollegiate athletics they will have an athletic department and someone will be in charge whether they call the person 'athletic director' or not, they are merely playing word games," he wrote. "I don't know if much is going to change at Vandy."
To be fair, Alleva pointed out that the unification of a school administration and its athletic department is advantageous.
"This structure allows us to share facilities and staff to be more efficient," he wrote.
As nice as that sounds, that will not assuage Gee's concerns regarding isolated athletes. Certainly, athletes have friends on and off their athletic teams--but I'd imagine that many are less assimilated into the student body as they wish to be.
However, it is also probably true that most students involved in time-consuming activities are surrounded by the same people most of the time, and as a result, remain "isolated" with those friends more exclusively than with the rest of the Duke community. Vanderbilt will be no different.
But gee-whiz, isn't there some way Gee can eliminate the perils (and myriad benefits) of varsity athletics at his academically prestigious university?
Sure--eliminate sports all together.
At least that would be original.
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