Columbia Owes Athletes An Apology

Jonathan Cole, you owe Columbia athletes an apology.

George Rupp, you owe Columbia athletes an apology.

Columbia University, you owe your athletes an apology.

Last Friday, Jason Elliott's well-researched article revealed a web of deception, disconnection, and gross misunderstanding as Columbia failed to provide adequate facilities for its athletes.

It told the story of an athletic director who found a way to build a crew boathouse and a new tennis facility, and dramatically renovate Dodge Fitness Center. However, he admittedly did not put enough pressure on administrative bobble-head dolls to construct facilities which would merely make Columbia competitive in the Ivy League.

So, instead, Columbia won far fewer Ivy League championships than any other school in the 1990s.

Instead, Columbia continued to add sport after sport, thinking that the new ones could be supported--but in reality, they were kidding themselves.

Instead, Columbia never gave its athletes the proper resources to succeed against its peers, so they wound up enduring years of losing, pathetically calling fifth-place finishes and .500 records a triumph.

Learning how to deal with adversity might be valuable, but how would you feel knowing that every time you step on the field you will probably lose, because your opponents come from universities which attend to every compelling athletic necessity?

I've gotten to know John Reeves fairly well over the years I've been at Columbia. I don't think I've ever met a man in the sports world with more integrity. He has a vision and a philosophy that differs somewhat from mine, but I respect Dr. Reeves because I know his passionate beliefs are grounded in legitimate moral values. Reeves will always take responsibility when he makes a mistake--even if he isn't always the one at fault--and refuses to blame others when things go awry.

In 1991, a search committee begged John Reeves (he actually declined the job once before) to leave Stony Brook and take over an athletic department that few in the country had the guts to run. It was a department that had just seen its football team complete a miserable 44-game losing streak. It was a department that was the butt of national athletic jokes. And to make the job more appealing, it was a department that was promised a zero-growth budget. Fortunately, it is a department that has now come a long way from its pathetic state 13 years ago, as John Reeves has done a number of great things for athletics, from balancing the budget to hiring Joe Jones and hiring Bob Shoop. But Columbia athletics still needs to cover far more ground.

It seems to me that Reeves's biggest fault is that he put too much trust in people. That is perhaps why members from numerous athletic teams felt the need to go to me--of all people--and other Spectator writers, to bring up serious issues with coaches. It was perhaps why we covered several equivalents of player mutinies in the past year and a half.

But that trust extended to the administration. Jonathan Cole may have been a former baseball player, but he was the ultimate athletic pretender. For whatever reason, he led Reeves to believe that two $250,000-commissioned plans for necessary buildings would become a reality. This was a provost who time and again proved clueless in how to deal with undergraduate students. After years of Jonathan Cole, we now have a faculty that seems never to be held accountable for their performance in the classroom, and on-strike TAs who, disgustingly, refer to themselves as "the backbone of Columbia." When I applied to Columbia, I never thought I was applying to a school where TAs were considered the backbone.

It is also a trust in Cole that was so naïve that Reeves assumed President Lee Bollinger and Provost Alan Brinkley would be apprised of athletic facilities plans by the outgoing Provost. The assumption was so great that Reeves never once mentioned the plans to Bollinger in the one year he reported to him, so the first time Bollinger and Brinkley learned about athletics' strong desire for space next to Pupin was in a conversation with our very own Jason Elliott last week.

Oops.

Some say that Reeves could have built some of these necessary facilities, had he found a donor. But in reality, Reeves never had clearance to talk to some of Columbia's richest alums, who could generously have given the necessary millions. Only Low Library's top administrators and University Development and Alumni Relations had such access. And they never earnestly pitched athletics facilities.

So, instead, Patriots owner Robert Kraft donated millions for the Kraft Center.

Instead, late, former ABC Sports and News President Roone Arledge donated $6 million for an auditorium.

Instead, late Cleveland Browns owner Al Lerner donated tens of millions for an $86 million student center, with the glass alone costing $13 million because it was hand-cut in Switzerland. The glass is now partially shattered and only reveals a sea of empty ramps to the entire Columbia community.

Nice job controlling costs, PrezRupp.

But now it is time to end the blame game. Now it is time to put the past behind us and look to the future. Now it is time to examine what options are out there for Columbia, so that this University, which derives so much of its greatness from its Ivy League status, can actually compete in the Ivy League.

After years of getting the proverbial shaft, now is the time for athletics to get the real support it has so long deserved. The protests of 1968 are a thing of the past.

Let me repeat that: the protests of 1968 are a thing of the past.

While some students still come to Columbia hoping to duplicate the events of 36 years ago, they are in reality ineffective wannabes who are protesting just for the sake of protesting.

The real interests of the student community were on display when 1,500 students crammed into the Blue Gym for Columbia's inaugural Midnight Mania to celebrate and rally around a team coming off a 2-25 season. Students are desperate for school community, and are crying out to cheer for winning teams.

Real facilities are crucial now more than ever, as students work out considerably more than in past generations, largely because they have learned that physical fitness is valuable to their personal well-being.

But Columbia continues to struggle with the increasing demand for its athletic facilities. It continues to struggle to adequately train its athletes. It continues to struggle to lure the best and brightest athletes because of its lackluster facilities. It continues to inadequately support its 43 club sports teams. It continues to watch its cramped facilities crumble while suffering from overuse. Uris Pool's four separate emergency closings and repairs this year are indicative of that.

Columbia needs a field house, an aquatics center, and additional fields--not in five years, not in 10-20 years... but NOW. I don't care whether they're next to Pupin, in Manhattanville, by Baker Field, or shared with the Javits Center. President Bollinger and Provost Brinkley need to work with the new athletic director and come up with tangible solutions. These solutions need to be implemented ASAP. And no, building athletics facilities to put us merely on par with other Ivy League schools will not compromise our academic mission in any way. If anything, it will enhance it.

As I leave Spectator now, I urge all students and alumni to continue speaking out on some of the messages I've repeated over the past four years. Don't ever sell this University short of what it can and should accomplish. Don't ever accept losing and embrace mediocrity. Hold the proper people and institutions accountable, but always be fair and accurate in how you make your case, and always maintain proper perspective.

With Joe Jones, Bob Shoop, and others, Columbia is on the cusp of entering a bold new era it has seldom experienced. Now is the time for Columbia to embrace that era and give it proper support.

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As this is my last column, I would be remiss if I didn't thank certain people. First off, I want to thank former editor-in-chief Dan Laidman, who brought me into Spectator, and then Mike Mirer and Mike Scheinkman, who were valuable first mentors at both Spectator and WKCR. I also have to acknowledge Josh Fay-Hurvitz, who worked with me on what was easily the most enjoyable journalism experience I've ever had, and Nick Summers, who turned out to be as exceptional an editor as one could be. And finally, our current Sports Editor Theo Orsher, who carries the Spec Sports torch and has the section looking as good as it ever has. My plans for the future at this point are uncertain, but as I move forward I will remember all of you.