| Subject: Times Dispatch Article on why PL did not offer benefits |
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DebataRam
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Date Posted: 11:34:46 03/04/05 Fri
The University of Richmond's president yesterday recommended that the Spiders remain a scholarship football program.
Dr. William E. Cooper appeared yesterday afternoon at committee meetings that preceded this morning's Board of Trustees meeting. Cooper told committee members that he supports the Spiders joining the Colonial Athletic Association football league in 2007 rather than becoming members of the Patriot League, whose football programs award only need-based financial aid.
Cooper will make the same recommendation this morning to the full Board of Trustees. Ultimately, the direction of UR football is the Board's call, though it commonly follows the lead of the school president. About 30 Board members will listen to Cooper present information. The Board then will discuss options and vote. Majority rules.
Cooper's decision to support scholarship football comes after UR investigated the Patriot League, whose football membership consists of Bucknell, Colgate, Fordham, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Lafayette and Lehigh. The Patriot League wants UR as an eighth football member.
Cooper yesterday told committee members that he assumed Richmond would save money and raise the academic profile of its football players if the Spiders switched to the Patriot League for football. Analysis performed by UR indicated otherwise, Cooper informed the committees.
UR would spend about the same as a Patriot League member as it does as a fully-funded scholarship program due to substantial financial aid given to Patriot League players. The studies also reflected that the academic level of Patriot League players is roughly equal to that of current Spiders.
On Wednesday, Cooper indicated he had not yet taken a position on the matter of future football affiliation, and that he was still collecting information. He received strong feedback after UR's interest in the Patriot League was made public earlier this week.
A Richmond representative said yes- terday afternoon that the president's office received more e-mails and phone calls regarding the football issue -- more than 100 communications -- than it did when UR announced a controversial tuition raise last year. About 85 percent of the calls and e-mails supported scholarship football, according to the school spokesman. The athletic department received about 60 calls and e-mails, almost all in support of scholarship football.
Board of Trustees members, sources said, were shocked by the volume of response they personally received. At the UR-Xavier men's basketball game Wednesday night, the crowd at one point chanted "CAA! CAA! CAA!" Fliers discouraging Patriot League affiliation were distributed. Petitions in support of CAA football membership were circulated more than 1,000 signatures were collected -- and delivered to Board members at yesterday's committee meetings.
A UR source said one major consideration in a potential move to the Patriot League was how the shift would affect fund-raising. Several supporters who financially back Richmond athletics threatened to end their association with UR if the football program was stripped of scholarships.
UR's exploration of possible Patriot League membership for football began as a response to the upcoming formation of the CAA football league. The Richmond-based conference is expected to launch football in 2007, and include all 12 schools -- assuming UR comes along that currently belong to the Atlantic 10 Football Conference. William and Mary and James Madison are among the dozen that will continue to play in the A-10 for the next two seasons.
UR requires Board of Trustees approval before making a conference switch. Rather than committing to the CAA when the other 11 schools did, Cooper and some Board members chose to seriously examine another option.
. . .
Also, the University of Richmond has denied a woman's charge made on a WXGI radio sports call-in show yesterday that Cooper grabbed the woman's wrist during a discussion about his role in possibly downgrading the university's football program.
"At no time did the president touch her," said Dan Kalmanson, UR's associate vice president of communications.
The alleged incident occurred when the woman, Cathy Bowling, left her seat and approached Cooper in the presidential seating area during the men's basketball game at the Robins Center on Wednesday night.
Bowling was holding a flier accusing Cooper of taking the university into a non-scholarship football league.
Bowling insisted that Cooper told her that she owed him an apology for displaying a flier that implied he was behind the proposal.
She said the UR president held her wrist twice and once shook it to make his point that she owed him and anyone she distributed the flier to an apology.
UR Police Chief Robert Dillard, who has a seat in the Robins Center directly across from Cooper, said he didn't see any kind of confrontation involving the president and a spectator.
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