Various rumors and controversies are burdening Quinnipiac, and the sports department is no different. So when University President John Lahey visited Professor Larry Levine’s Sports Studies 101 class, none of the students knew what to expect.
For senior Broadcast Journalism major, Michael Cea, this was a once in an undergraduate lifetime experience.
“I never really see the guy on campus, [it was] nice to meet him two weeks before graduation,” said Cea. “It was interesting to hear what he had to say about what he does, and what he does to run the school.”
“Basically he came in to speak about sports and their relationship to the university,” said sophomore Public Relations major Nicole Pappas.
Pappas claimed that Lahey spoke about how, “Academics need to come before sports at an institution.”
“What he wants to do here is academics first, and then athletics,” she continued.
“He doesn’t want to turn into a school like UConn where when you hear it you think of basketball,” said Cea, “He said he loves sports, and sports bring a lot of unity on the campus- but he thinks it’s better to have your school put academics first. I know personally that Ohio State puts more into its athletic department that we do our entire budget.”
Currently, the biggest controversy surrounding the athletic department is the ACLU’s lawsuit against the University for Title IX violations. The students in Professor Levine’s class were quick to inquire about the controversy.
“I felt like he didn’t want to talk a lot about it,” said Pappas. “He thinks that the way that they’ve cut programs at Quinnipiac has absolutely adhered to Title IX and they will end up ok with the lawsuit.”
“He said as far as he was concerned he thought everything was followed correctly,” said Cea.
Although Lahey feels that the Title IX is valuable, it seems to be having more unfortunate ramifications than helpful ones.
“He feels like its good but the longer it goes on, it’s taking more away from guys. It seemed good at first for collegiate sports, but it’s really only taking away men’s sports to help make women’s more equal—at least that’s the vibe I got,” said Cea.
Pappas agreed. “Basically it just seemed like they cut the two men’s sports to better adhere to Title IX. He mentioned that if they [the ACLU] did convict them [Quinnipiac] we would have to cut more men’s sports, once you cut a sport you can’t really bring it back.”
Another topic Lahey spoke about was utilizing the TD BankNorth Center for more than just concerts.
“He wants to have more things up there that better use the facilities. He actually went to the [Ludacris] concert, which is really weird if you can picture him there,” said Pappas.
By the end Cea was able to understand where the President was coming from. “If you’re smart right now you cut back, it’s unfortunate but it will benefit more in the long run to cut back now and then rebuild in the future."
Red Zmudzien contributed in reporting for this story
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