By Phillip M. Bailey
Speaking about departing seniors Otis George, Ellis Myles and Larry O’Bannon and NBA-bound Francisco Garcia, U of L basketball coach Rick Pitino said, "Without those guys, we’re nothing."
Truer words were never spoken — just ask the General Assembly.
Without athletics, higher education in the bluegrass state is more like a fiscal burden slated for budget cuts than a social good that can enhance the state’s educational infrastructure, human capital and national image.
According to Kentucky state treasurer Jonathan Miller, the state senate passed a bill last week that effectually loots Kentucky’s Affordable Prepaid Tuition (KAPT) fund to “the tune of $13.7 million.” KAPT, like Social Security, utilizes personal savings of Kentucky families who understand that investing today in their children’s education ensures economic security in the future.
While eviscerating education, the General Assembly has the warped priority to support the academic underachievement of both U of L and UK men’s basketball. When the NCAA released its Academic Progress Report, both schools ranked in the bottom 10th percentile. The General Assembly rewarded that mediocrity with a $12 million multipurpose basketball practice facility for the Cards — concurrently cutting the U of L health science center project by $8 million. Rival UK got $15 million to dribble, while taking a $24 million cut for its student health center.
This audacious fiscal misconduct, however despicable, is not out of step nationally. Upward Bound, a college access program that for 40 years has helped thousands of high school students from low-income families improve grades, confidence and access to college, may receive severe budget cuts to salvage President Bush’s botched initiative, No Child Left Behind. A recommendation by the president would slash the program by $800 million, threatening its very existence in states like Kentucky.
Shauntrice Martin, a 2003 graduate of the program, questions the president’s logic: “It doesn’t make sense to cut a program that works to fund a program that doesn’t.”
Martin, a member of the U of L debate team, is the first member of her family to attend college and said over 70 percent of her classmates were first-generation college students. “I wouldn’t be able to attend college without Upward Bound,” said Martin.
With continuous tuition hikes, backwards fiscal priorities in Frankfort and an ambivalent Athletic Department, where is the voice of reason?
More to the point, where are the fighters? Forthcoming SGA President Bill Brammell and Academic Vice President Alicia Paez are my first contenders. Both are presented with a grand opportunity to raise a real political issue worth fighting for in the SGA. Neither should balk at the challenge.
To the students, volunteers and employees, Upward Bound is more than a line item Bush & Co. can write off as insignificant. It’s much more than a sacrificial lamb to bleed money for the Cardinal Nation. For them, it’s access for hundreds of students to a new social mobility, and they won’t quit without a fight. Hopefully, Brammell, Paez, the student senate — and, more importantly, U of L President James Ramsey — will join them.
Phillip M. Bailey is a junior double-majoring in Political Science and Sociology, Chair of the UofL SNCC and a columnist for The Cardinal. E-mail him at: pbailey@louisvillecardinal.com
