Resurrect the FBA
Letter to the Editor
Faculty should be relieved that the Faculty Board on Athletics has not been implicated in any of the events leading to recent changes in the assignments of Michael Wadsworth, athletic director, and Father E. William Beauchamp, executive vice president. But there is also no evidence that the FBA, as constituted and functioning, has or can be part of the solution to the well-publicized problems of the athletic department.
The provost told the Faculty Senate on Wednesday that president Malloy would appoint a faculty member "from the Faculty Board of Athletics" to serve on the search committee for a new athletic director and that the president intends to meet with the entire board "in due time" to explain the recently announced restructuring and changes.
Faculty have never perceived the FBA as anything but a rubber stamp. FBA members have routinely been charmed, snowed or stonewalled by the AD and the executive VP. Formerly known as the Faculty Board in Control of Athletics, the FBA actually controls nothing, including its own agenda, and it cannot function as a "watchdog" in any serious sense of the word. The FBA must be restructured and given autonomous investigative and watchdog authority in all matters of the sort which have so seriously embarrassed Notre Dame.
The faculty member of the search committee for the new athletic director should be elected by the faculty, not appointed by the president. This is the only way faculty can be confident that the search committee will hear a strong, independent voice familiar with Notre Dame's athletic history, well-acquainted with inter-collegiate athletics at the national level, committed to the integrity and success of our athletic programs and totally devoted to the academic and personal welfare of all athletes who represent Notre Dame in inter-collegiate competition.
As the Faculty Senate recommended as long ago as Sept. 7, 1994, "a member elected annually from the elected faculty" should chair the FBA. There is no other way to insure the FBA can function as an independent watchdog.
A. Edward Manier
Professor of philosophy
February 13, 2000
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, February 14, 2000
