Fulfilling its purpose

I was taken aback when I read Wally Hall’s column this past Sunday. It is not my place to comment on whether or not Chad Morris should have been fired as Arkansas’ head football coach; his record certainly indicates he had not been very successful despite being paid an enormous amount of money to coach and, now, not to coach.

What I found disturbing was Wally’s line of reasoning about the primary role of the trustees concerning the university. He implied that they have been delinquent in their duties by not making their primary responsibility the supervision of the football program.

The University of Arkansas is first and foremost the state’s flagship academic institution. I seriously doubt that without football it would be “a small land-grant college in the mountains.” He states that the trustees are “continuously told to worry about academics at all the schools in the UA System.” That is precisely what their most important duty should be.

While I am not an alumnus of the university, I respect it as an institution. I have nothing against athletics, and played intercollegiate athletics myself. However, we must keep in mind that universities are about the education of their students, and athletics are an extracurricular activity. He mentioned that 20 years ago following a big win over Tennessee the number of applications set a record. My question is whether those are the individuals we would like to apply to the university if their interest is primarily based on athletic prowess rather than academic excellence. Fortune 500 companies are not in Arkansas because of our football team but rather because of the abundance of bright, well-educated young people available in the work force.

PHILLIP J. PETERS

Little Rock