Opinion:
Let’s Hear It for State U.
Sometimes
the best school isn’t the “elite” college at the top of the national rankings.
It’s the public university just down the road.
By
Margaret Renkl
Contributing Opinion Writer
NY Times March 25, 2019
NASHVILLE
— News of the recent college-bribery scandal broke the same week the University
of Tennessee announced it would be offering free tuition to Tennessee families
earning less than $50,000 a year. The announcement came the day my two younger
sons were finishing up their U.T. midterms and packing to come back to
Nashville for spring break, where home-cooked meals and fair amount of yardwork
awaited them.
My
husband is a schoolteacher, and I work for a humanities nonprofit. This work
will never make us rich, but we’re doing just fine, and the new tuition program
at our sons’ university won’t affect us. But sending two children to college at
once is still a stretch. Sometimes I think of the financial planner we hired
when I was pregnant with our youngest child. We hadn’t started a
college-savings plan yet and needed help sorting out the bewildering array of
options. The financial planner looked at our paperwork, saw what we were
earning, and said flatly, “You can’t afford to send three kids to college.”
But
somehow we have. Our oldest, a history major, had his heart set on a
liberal-arts college. We managed to make it work only because he lived at home
for the first few years, and only because my mother died and left just enough
money behind to put tuition within reach, if barely. But our son also worked at
least 20 hours a week during the school year, and full-time every summer, and
he paid for much of his education himself.
That
small liberal-arts college ended up being a great choice for him, but my husband
and I worried about what we’d do if his younger brothers, only two years apart
in school, also wanted expensive private colleges. Fortunately, our middle
son’s top choice was the University of Tennessee, which has a strong
engineering program. Later, our youngest made the same choice, partly because
he wanted to be in school with his brother again, and partly because he wanted
a big university with a wide array of majors to explore.
The
idea of a college search would have been foreign to me as a high-school senior.
Of the two flagship state universities, I picked my mother’s alma mater and was
admitted simply by having my ACT scores sent there. When I got to Auburn
University in the fall of 1980, Pell Grants, work-study assignments and
low-interest federal loans were still plentiful enough that students like me —
people not impoverished enough or brilliant enough to earn a full ride — could
nevertheless get a good education, even if their parents couldn’t afford to pay
a dime.
It
never crossed my mind that I was “settling” for something less than an elite
education. I was grateful beyond belief to be going to college at all.
How I
wish I had the words, even now, to explain what a gift those years were. I took
an overload almost every quarter because extra courses didn’t cost anything
extra, and it was impossible to choose from among all the offerings. I wanted
to learn everything, read everything, think about everything. And everything
seemed to be right there for the taking on that rural campus in the piedmont of
Alabama.
Some of
my professors were boring, sure, and some were ancient cranks who hadn’t done a
minute’s scholarship in decades. But most others opened their office doors,
leaned back in their chairs and carried on the conversation long after class,
as long as I still had questions. One professor conducted a one-student
correspondence course by mail, just for fun, the summer before I was a
sophomore.
Another
offered a bunch of us the guest quarters at her house in the country as a quiet
place to study for exams. Still another convened a Latin literature class at 7
a.m., five days a week, because there were only four students in the whole
university who wanted to read literature in Latin, and the university wouldn’t
schedule a class for only four students. We all signed up for Latin as an
independent-study course, and we met in that professor’s office where he taught
us, unpaid, for nearly two years.
At
Auburn, I learned to run a literary publication — the kind of work I still do
today — and I made lifelong friends. I got a good education there — good
enough, at least, to get me into graduate school at the kind of elite
university that’s at the heart of today’s cheating scandal. But that elite
university was also a school where I did not belong. It was just too far from
home, too far from the soil my bare feet longed for. When I transferred to the
University of South Carolina for my master’s degree, I found the same thing I’d
found at Auburn: Everything I needed was right there — if I looked for it — and
it felt like home.
Yes,
state universities have their problems, and those problems can be profound.
Cash-strapped legislatures too often balance their budgets by cutting funds to
higher education, resulting in catastrophic tuition hikes. Provincial yahoos
too often serve as university trustees or administrators, energetically
erecting barriers to the kind of wide-ranging curiosity that a university
education is supposed to foster. Tenured professors retire and are too often
replaced by adjuncts so underpaid and so shamefully overburdened that their
work amounts to exploitation. And that’s just for starters.
Nevertheless,
against all odds, the real heart of a college education — the bond borne of
shared intellectual exploration between teachers and curious students, between
curious students and each other — remains intact, if only in pockets of campus
life, at every state university I know. My brother and sister-in-law are
professors at a state university, and I have friends who work at other state
universities and community colleges across the region. To a person, their
commitment to their students and to their own research and creative work is an
inspiration. I would entrust my children’s education to them without a moment’s
hesitation.
In fact,
I already have. My sons are getting much the same kind of education at the
University of Tennessee that I got so many years ago at Auburn and that my
husband got at the University of Georgia. With some exceptions — just as there
were decades ago — our sons are being challenged intellectually and supported
emotionally. They are making friends who will be their friends for life.
As with
my oldest son, a large state university isn’t the right fit for every student.
There are many kinds of schools and many kinds of students, and I understand
that. What I don’t understand is why so many people seem to think you can’t get
a good education at a rank-and-file state university — not Berkeley or the
University of Virginia, but still the kind of school the vast majority of young
people in this country would feel grateful and honored to attend.
In the
end, students who want an education will get an education wherever they go to
school. No cheating required.
::::::::::::
College
athletics not worth cost to universities
WSU’s
football program brings in money, but program remains in debt
By ALEX
BIVIANO, Evergreen columnistMarch 19, 2019
The
highest-paid state employee in 27 states, including Washington, is a college
football coach. In 13 other states a college basketball coach is the highest
paid state employee.
These
coaches often bring eight-figure revenue to the university they work for, but
many athletic departments remain in debt leading observers to wonder if their
tax dollars are going anywhere worthwhile.
Most of
the salary is funded through the athletic department, but as the arms-race in
college athletics escalates, profits have not followed the same trend.
In
Washington, the four highest-paid state employees are college coaches. UW head
football coach Chris Petersen makes almost five times more than the
university’s president and here at WSU the gap is even wider between Mike Leach
and Kirk Schulz.
Yong
Chae Rhee, sports management professor with a specialty in sport business, said
sports funding is necessary in the face of mounting deficits.
“What
athletics bring to a university is recognition,” Rhee said. “A lot of studies
have been done that show national championships bring enrollment growth.”
Idaho
is a cautionary tale of what can come as a result of inadequate athletic
spending. However, one university’s failure does not set the requirements for
how all other universities should spend their money.
College
athletics can serve as a great way to market a university to the world. After a
college team has an impressive season, donations and enrollment spike. This new
funding often leads to improved faculty, equipment and buildings around campus.
In
1998, Gonzaga was in danger of going under financially, but a Sweet Sixteen run
in 1999 by the men’s basketball team in Head Coach Mark Few’s first season led
to a 20 percent increase in student enrollment in just one year, according to ESPN.
Today
their campus still enjoys the fruits of their revival by erecting new buildings
on campus and creating a more selective application process. The average high
school GPA of an incoming freshman went from 3.54 in 1998, up to 3.71 in 2017,
according to ESPN.
These
success stories should be taken as a rarity just like the failures are. Gonzaga
is an example of a truly impressive transformation. The university is much
stronger academically now than it was 20 years ago and much of this success can
be traced to its men’s basketball team.
While
Gonzaga is close geographically, it is unique from every other major university
in Washington due to the fact that it does not have a football team. Football
is an exciting and profitable sport, but it creates a conundrum for
universities financially.
Title
IX requires equal funding for both men’s and women’s sports, putting
universities with larger than life football programs at a huge disadvantage.
Title
IX is an insanely important statute that creates countless opportunities for
women. Title IX should not be altered, but it should be accounted for when a
university is budgeting athletic funding.
Sports
open the door for so many students who would not normally be able to receive
higher education. They also open the eyes of many prospective students who now
look at WSU despite knowing nothing about the school other than the fact that
Gardner Minshew II has a killer mustache and a rocket arm.
WSU is
where it is today as a respected Pac-12 school because of athletics, but it
also has a more than $60 million deficit facing its department.
College
athletics should be supported as an important investment for the university but
entering the arms race and spending money to keep up with schools like Alabama
or Ohio State does not benefit anyone.
Instead
of paying a basketball coach over $1.4 million to miss the NCAA Tournament
every year, that money could be better spent elsewhere.
Sports
are deeply ingrained in our DNA as Cougs, but we are more than that and sports
should be looked at with the same objective eye as every other department on
campus.
::::::::::::::
Effort
to move to all-year daylight saving time gaining steam in Congress as US
Senator Patty Murray, a WSU grad, backs effort
UPDATED:
Mon., March 25, 2019, 3:02 p.m.
By Ryan
Blake The Spokesman-Review
OLYMPIA
– Washington has a fan of permanent daylight saving time in Congress.
During
a roundtable discussion with Olympia reporters recently, U.S. Sen. Patty
Murray, D-Wash., said she is committed to allowing states the option for
year-round daylight saving time.
“I
would love it,” said Murray, who regularly has to fly back and forth between
multiple time zones between the two Washingtons. “It’s time to look at what
works for business and what works for families.”
The state
Senate and House each passed bills to maintain daylight saving as the state’s
singular time. The Senate bill calls for a referendum on the change in November
if Congress gives the approval to make the switch. The House bill would make
the switch if Congress says yes, without putting it on the ballot.
If the
Legislature and Gov. Jay Inslee give final approval to one of the measures,
Washington would join a movement with Florida and California as states seeking
necessary congressional approval for year-round daylight saving time.
A bill
introduced in the U.S. House would give states the ability to choose to observe
year-round daylight saving time. Another bill, introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio,
R-Fla., would make daylight saving time permanent in the 48 states that observe
it. Murray said she was willing to work with Rubio on his bill.
State
Rep. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, said he favors adopting daylight saving time
as the sole time, and growing support for that in the Legislature could serve
as a signal to the country.
It
could also be a signal for U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who said in an
email that she is open to the idea if the Legislature ultimately approves one
of the measures.
In a
sign of the proposal’s scope and its ability to transcend partisan politics,
President Donald Trump chimed in on the issue with a recent tweet: “Making
Daylight Saving Time permanent is O.K. with me!”
Oregon’s
Legislature is considering several daylight saving time proposals, and U.S.
Sen. Ron Wyden is a co-sponsor of Rubio’s bill.
Idaho’s
Legislature recently rejected a bill that would have nixed daylight saving time
altogether and put the state on permanent standard time.
Staying
on standard time appeals to some Washington residents like Sheila Howell, of
Elk, who called daylight saving time “basically make-believe.”
“You’re
just pretending you have more time,” Howell said.
She
agrees that switching the clock twice a year leads to more accidents and health
problems. But the human body’s rhythms are based more on standard time, and
rural people aren’t such big fans of daylight time.
“You
don’t change how your animals act. They’re tuned in to nature,” she said.
::
Coug
men’s basketball Coaching search: What WSU might look like under Bennie Seltzer
By Barry
Bolton Cougfan.com
CF.C
HAS INTERVIEWED Bennie Seltzer enough times since he returned to his alma mater
as an assistant basketball coach two years ago to form a good idea what
Washington State’s program would look like under him. We’ve also spent the past
week talking to several other coaches and basketball minds who know Seltzer in
order to draw an even clearer picture. And for the record, though we knew the
likely reply, we asked Seltzer himself if would like to broach the topic and he
graciously declined.
From
our conversations with others, all of whom preferred to talk without being
publicly identified, we boiled down the case for Seltzer to succeed Ernie Kent
to 5 reasons:
1) It's
about defense
A
Seltzer defense can best be described in three words: in your face. But he
would do it in a different way than Dick and Tony Bennett did; rebounding would
be a top priority with the aim to pound the glass on both ends. You could also
expect double teams on every post pass and traps on every ball screen.
A
Seltzer defense likely would put more pressure on the ball than WSU fans are
used to, and it would see the Cougs striving more to get into the passing lanes
to create turnovers – an area the Cougs have struggled in markedly. (In
turnovers forced the last four seasons, WSU ranks 298th out of 348 D-I teams).
2) The
pedigree
Seltzer's
pedigree and philosophy comes from a system that was successful at WSU when
Seltzer starred as a Cougar guard from 1989-93 under Kelvin Sampson -- and is
still successful today. Look no further
this year's March Madness bracket to see what Sampson has accomplished at
Houston. And remember than Seltzer
didn't just play under Sampson, he also spent nine seasons with Sampson at
Oklahoma as an assistant coach.
Related:
In hoops coaching search, Pat Chun's Ohio State history leads to possibilities
3)
Recruiting
To find
success in hoops, WSU's history proves you have to recruit differently than
others in the conference. Seltzer probably would bring in a mix of JC players,
transfers and high schoolers much like Sampson did in the early 1990s. If
there's a common denominator, it's this: guys from far and wide with chips on
their shoulders. WSU doesn't have brand-new facilities, or even plans to invest
in them, so finding guys who have the potential to prove themselves in a
blue-collar way on the Power 6 recruiting trail would be key.
As a
player, Seltzer came to WSU from Alabama. His coaching career has seen him
forge recruiting connections in the Midwest, out on the East Coast, down in the
South -- pretty much all over. WSU shouldn’t be recruiting against the
Arizona’s or UCLA’s of the world, but they also shouldn’t be recruiting against
Montana State either.
4)
Offense
Seltzer
is a believer in the 1-4 offense, where you run your cuts as hard as humanly
possible, and every trip down the floor you run the offense harder than the
defense is playing. Seltzer is still the Cougs' all-time leader in assists and
the philosophy he developed from Sampson is that the point guard is the coach
on the floor.
In the
Sampson mode, the point guard would go fast on offense when he needs to go
fast, but also know when to slow it down as necessary. It wouldn’t be
smashmouth basketball, and it would still be run at a good tempo, but it would
be more physical than WSU played the last 10 years under Ernie Kent and Ken
Bone.
The
motion offense, or spread, that Kent ran wouldn’t be the dominant feature under
Seltzer simply because he believes more in sets and structure than freelancing.
Some game situations call for players to just play, but those would be the
exception rather than the rule. All told, and while noting that everything
starts with defense, it would be an exciting offense WSU could successfully
sell on the recruiting trail.
5) The
long haul
Chun
has two very big challenges with the hoops hire. First, he needs to get the right guy -- and
that's going to be hard enough (see the last 10 years under Kent and Bone). But
secondly, let's say Chun hits a home run and brings in a coach who turns WSU
around in two years. Given the Cougs'
lack of top-notch facilities, and with nothing to tie that coach to WSU,
chances are high he'll bolt when other schools come calling with more money,
better facilities, and all the things that give a coach the best chance for
sustained wins.
Seltzer,
however, has told other coaches we talked to that being head coach of the Cougs
-- at his alma mater -- would be his dream job. Whereas someone else might use
Wazzu as a stepping stone, chances are high Seltzer would instead want to build
something for the long haul out on the Palouse.
:::::::::::::::::::::
Football.
Gone too soon: WSU gentle giant Tomasi Kongaika dies at 38
By Barry Bolton Cougfan.com Mar 24 2019
TOMASI
KONGAIKA, a defensive tackle on Washington State’s 2003 Rose Bowl team, has
died, according to multiple former Cougar players and friends on Facebook. He was 38 years old. The news stunned his former teammates and
those who knew him, with an outpouring of social media tributes to “Masi” as
word spread that he had passed away this weekend.
Mkristo
Bruce posted on Facebook that Kongaika died in Alaska from heart failure.
Another former fellow defensive line teammate of Kongaikia's, Rien Long, wrote;
“His being was radiant and infectious. He is my brother.” New Cougar linebacker Rocky Katoanga, who
arrived to Pullman in January, is Kongaika’s nephew according to WSU's Februrary
signing day release.
Kongaika
played at WSU from 1998-2002. He could flat out run and flashed athleticism
that belied his 6-1, 300 pounds -- particularly in his first two seasons before
a knee injury. Over his Cougar career, he logged 12 starts and played in 36
games, finishing with 67 tackles including 12 for loss.
After
redshirting his first season at Wazzu, he started six games each of his
freshman and sophomore campaigns, earning All-Pac-10 honorable mention as a
third-year sophomore. A dislocated patella tendon in his left knee suffered
during a rec basketball game limited him to just two games his junior campaign,
and ultimately left Cougar fans to wonder what might have been his final two
seasons had he remained injury-free. As
a senior in 2002, he came back to play all 13 games in rotation during the
Cougars’ Rose Bowl season.
After
his playing days at WSU, Kongaika headed to Toronto and the Canadian Football
League but an injury to the same knee ended his CFL career before it could take
off. He later caught on with the National Indoor Football League and played six
seasons with the Wyoming Cavalry and Sioux Falls Storm. During the 2010
campaign and eight years after he left Pullman, the Casper Star-Tribune
reported teammates were still marveling at Kongaika's quickness, and the bright
light that was his personality.
BORN IN
TONGA, Kongaika matriculated to West High in Alaska where he starred on both
the football and wrestling teams. On the gridiron as a senior, he was named
Alaska’s lineman of the year, and first-team all-conference and all-state on
both offense and defense. On the mat he
won the state heavyweight title.
But
Alaska is not a recruiting thoroughfare, and Kongaika walked on at Washington
State before earning a scholarship under Mike Price and defensive coordinator
Bill Doba.
Former
WSU punter Kyle Basler also began his career as a walk on before earning a
scholarship, and his Cougar career overlapped with Kongaika's.
“Very
sad, man, and definitely a gentle giant. Rest easy Masi,” posted Basler.
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