STAFF EDITORIAL
We here at the Graphic enjoy a good cause and nothing has caught our philanthropic eye more than the fact that the brand new women’s track team doesn’t have hurdles and starting blocks to use in practice. Also, the pre- existing men’s team lacks some items.
We understand that the university underwent recent budget cuts and not all the departments, including the athletic department, are getting the funding they require. We’re all for frugality if it gets the university back on track economically. However, where’s the logic in introducing a new sport that the university can’t afford?
It goes against all our university tendencies to jump into something with no idea how we’re going to pay for it, which makes it seem as though the school really does want to fund the women’s track team. If so, then there’s only one question. What in the world is taking so long?
We discovered that an average collegiate hurdle costs between $60 and $95, meaning a set of 10 (the amount needed for a lane in a race) would cost, at the very most, $1,000. This may seem like a lot of money to starving college students, but it should not to a university that pulled in roughly $600 million the past fiscal year.
Truth is, we can pay for 100 sets of hurdles, and it would barely make a dent. But for some reason, the athletic department isn’t getting the funding necessary to fully support a women’s sport.
Now, this could be because women’s track doesn’t stand much of a chance to be a moneymaker like men’s basketball or baseball, but we’d like to think the university is a little more progressive than that.
The university prides itself on fielding a highly competitive athletic program. In fact, the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletic named Pepperdine the best non-football athletic program in 2005. So doesn’t it stand to reason that if the school wants to continue this rich athletic tradition, they’d set aside some money for the track team?
There is not a single sport that can practice effectively without the proper equipment. Imagine if the basketball team was told to hold scrimmages without basketballs or the baseball team was told to go through hitting drills without bats.
There’s no doubt the money would be raised immediately if boosters were told that Paul Westphal’s boys had no basketballs. So why is it so tough for these poor women to get the proper funding? There’s no reason they should go any longer without the equipment they need to field a competitive team.
It’s not like we’re asking for unreasonable additions to our campus. But seeing that those might get more attention from donors, it is worth a try.
For starters, we could get a parking structure near the Center for Communication and Business to alleviate the daily maelstrom that is the morning commute to class. While we are at it, lets put a parking structure in place of the lot outside smothers.
Also, students shouldn’t have to die of exhaustion when they need to get from the gym to lower dorm road or upper dorm road to the top of campus. The two steep sets of stairs have caused numerous injuries and plenty of asthma attacks. They need to go. The university can put escalators in their place to appease the student population. This is not just a request, it’s a demand.
Next, a gondola from the graduate campus to main campus would ease the strain on the environment caused by all those undergrads driving back and forth from their honors apartments to class. What’s good for Mother Earth is good for her inhabitants, so the faster that can be taken care of, the better.
Lastly, most of us students enjoy the sunshine much more than the rain. But in the winter, the sun hides and the rains try to wash us away. So we’re proposing a giant, retractable glass dome, a bubble if you will, over the whole campus. That would solve the rain problem.
Then again, all we really want is a track team we can be proud of, so please Pepperdine, buy these men and women some hurdles. It’s the least you could do.
01-26-2006