FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 28, 2000 CONTACT: Jon Ericson, (515) 255-0798 Murray Sperber, (812) 855-4433 FACULTY GROUP PROPOSES COLLEGE SPORTS REFORM Faculty members from universities across the country who are fed up with what they see as the corruption, exploitation and hypocrisy in college athletics have agreed on a platform to reform college sports. Meeting at Drake University Friday and Saturday (March 24-25), the two dozen academics adopted a platform with five proposals designed "to restore academic integrity, to fulfill our obligation as faculty, and to protect the welfare of all students." The faculty members, who call themselves the Drake Group-NAFCAR (National Alliance for Collegiate Athletic Reform) have proposed: Eliminating the term "student-athlete." Removing academic counseling and support programs from the control of athletic departments and making faculty senates responsible for these programs as well as providing academic support for all students, not just those engaged in intercollegiate athletics. Publicly disclosing academic information about all students, including academic major, academic adviser, courses and instructors. No individual's grades would be disclosed. For each intercollegiate athletic team, the following information would be disclosed at the end of each semester: courses enrolled in by team members, the average of the grades given in the course, and the instructor of the course. Reducing the number of intercollegiate athletic contests. Eliminating athletic scholarships while expanding the availability of need-based financial aid. Members of the Drake Group plan to forward these proposals to the presidents of faculty senates at NCAA Division I universities, the American Association of University Professors and other academic organizations. The Drake Group, which first met last October, plans to hold another meeting within several months. That meeting will be organized by Murray Sperber, professor of English and American studies at Indiana University and author of numerous books on college sports, including the forthcoming "Beer & Circus: How Big-Time College Sports is Crippling Undergraduate Education." Professor Sperber commented that the meeting at Drake this past weekend "took a large first step in linking all the faculty members and other people in all parts of the country who want to reform COLLEGE SPORTS MEGA-INC -- the out-of-control monster that big-time college sports has become." The proposed reforms are designed to give faculty members the same protection for their classrooms that coaches have for their practices, said Jon Ericson, founder of the Drake Group and the Ellis and Nelle Levitt distinguished professor of rhetoric and communication studies at Drake. "The coach selects his or her own athletes -- "students" -- and selects only the blue-chip best," Ericson said. "Then coaches demand that the athletes attend every practice, that they attend on time, and they take the athletes off campus well in advance of game time, even in advance of game day. We say the coach has discipline and standards. "When a professor takes the same student who is often not close to being blue-chip academically and says the student should be in class, it is called being insensitive and confrontational. This is but one of the many imbalances between academics and athletics that we believe faculty and academic administrators should revisit." The platform approved by the Drake Group is posted on the World Wide Web at www.drake.edu/events/collegesports/.