After years of grappling with the question of where UCSD belongs in the college-sporting landscape, campus faculty have deferred to students for an answer.

Last June, the Academic Senate Council approved a student vote on the grants-in-aid proposal for athletic scholarships and additional funds for the cash-strapped athletics department, placing the important decision in the hands of students who understand the issue best, according to council Chair Henry C. Powell.

“”For [the faculty] to take a stand on athletics is not helpful,”” Powell stated in an e-mail. “”The stand that we will always take is protecting the integrity of the academic mission.””

The decision to pass the vote to students was not an easy one, however, according to professor of pharmacology and former councilmember Morton Printz, who said that many faculty members felt the decision was theirs to make because of the long-term implications of the vote.

For those dissenters, awarding athletic scholarships and focusing on the athletic program at UCSD clashes with the campus’ founding principles.

In 1969, Revelle College Provost Paul Saltman said that UCSD athletics should remain an extracurricular function that emphasizes participation over professionalism, without ever interfering with the scholastic standards of the campus.

Rather than viewing intercollegiate athletics as a route to revenue and name recognition and a solution to student dissatisfaction with their social experience on campus, UCSD faculty fear that with big-time athletics comes academic fraud and skewed financial motivations that might corrupt the school’s Ivy-League-like academic mission.

According to some faculty members, the problem is not that they don’t like sports. Instead, they long for the good old days when high-participation club sports and intramural teams dominated the sporting scene at UCSD, and they strive to follow athletics programs like that of MIT rather than UC Berkeley or UCLA.

Additionally, when UCSD moved from Division III to Division II in 2000, the faculty was promised that the move would be the final advancement of the program and that it would not provide athletic scholarships, according to Revelle College Provost Daniel Wulbert.

“”The faculty was told that the move to Division II was not a camel’s-nose-under-the-tent move to scholarships, big-time sports and Division I,”” Wulbert stated in an e-mail. “”Now … there is talk of moving to Division I and external fundraising programs. I sense that some faculty members are leery.””

With the NCAA mandating that the university reconsider a scholarship proposal, many councilmembers have expressed dismay with the NCAA for not granting UCSD a permanent exemption from the $250,000 scholarship requirement.

“”It should not be the NCAA that sets costs for academic institutions,”” Printz said. “”Many of us believe that the UCSD administration should recognize that this is a new millennium, and perhaps time for a change in how the business of campus athletics is conducted in this country.””

Without endorsing the proposal, the council decided to put grants-in-aid to a student vote, concluding that if UCSD must have a scholarship program, awarding $500 to each student athlete is the “”cleverest”” and “”most acceptable”” way to go, Wulbert said.

However, if the referendum fails, 13 of UCSD’s 23 intercollegiate teams could be cut, undermining the faculty’s desire for a broad-based program.

While the university would like to give students a wide range of athletic options, resources are an issue, Powell said. Members of the faculty argue that if a strengthened athletic program is something students want, then they should be willing to pay for it.

A small minority of the Academic Senate Council wanted students to vote on whether the ultimate goal should be a move to Division I, Printz said.

The plan was not supported because of fear by big-time athletics supporters that it would be voted down by students. In addition, faculty who oppose the fee increase and want to drop to a lower conference level were worried that students would support the “”correct”” referendum, he said.

“”I still feel that this is the real issue for the students to vote on,”” Printz stated. “”It is my belief that when this campus was founded the majority of [students] wanted club sports … What do today’s students want? … Do students want to have big-time intercollegiate athletics at UCSD and are they willing to pay for it?””

Students can vote Jan. 29 through Feb. 2 on whether to increase the ICA activity fee – which now stands at $31.80 per quarter – by $78 per quarter to establish student-athlete grants-in-aid and meet the needs of the athletics department.

Until voting concludes, many faculty say they will sit back and wait.

“”In a democratic system we have to wait until the people have spoken,”” Powell stated. “”I look forward to hearing their decision.””

Readers can contact Serena Renner at [email protected].