[NU Sports] NU Basketball

[Jeff Beamsley]

 John wrote: <snip>

I think the point is that when the board of trustees chooses a president,
interest in athletics probably isn't a big factor at Northwestern.  Bienen
has really embraced and taken an interest in athletics.  We easily could
have gotten an otherwise excellent president who would not have done as much
as Bienen has to promote athletics.

=================================================

As the parent of a HS senior I can attest that in today's PREMIUM priced
college market, parents AND kids are looking for the complete college
experience.  That means academics, athletics, location, housing, food,
climate, etc.

Bienen understands this as did Weber.  That's why NU spent billions of
dollars building new class rooms, dorms, research facilities, and athletic
facilities.  NU had to shed it's "loser" athletic image or risk becoming a
"geek" school like Univ of Chicago.  NU parents shelling out the big bucks
want to know that their kids are going to have just as much fun at a
football or basketball game as their neighbors kid who went to Duke.
There's nothing wrong with that.  In fact, as Jim B. can attest, it's a lot
of fun to vicariously participate through athletic events in your kids
educational experiences. 

NU is competing with Duke, Stanford, the Ivy's, and the top tier public
schools (Umich, Wisky, UC Boulder, etc.) for the shrinking education dollar
of the upper class.  Unfortunately the days of the meritocracy which put me
through NU are pretty much gone.

So I seriously doubt that NU is at risk of returning to the days of Bob
Strotz anytime soon.  Please don't take that as a slam on Bob either.  I not
only don't want to speak ill of the dead, but also in my brief encounters
with him, I found he was quite a nice and surprisingly open-minded guy.

Jeff