Athletics important too, UI professor says

University of Iowa faculty leaders must be better informed and have more of a voice about issues concerning student athletes and the athletics department, the UI's faculty representative to athletics said.

“You cannot sow neglect yet harvest involvement,” Professor Betsy Altmaier told the UI Faculty Council Tuesday. “I just think you have work to do.”

Altmaier is in her last year of a 10-year appointment as the UI's Faculty Athletic Representative. In that role, she serves as the UI's faculty representative to the NCAA and the Big Ten Conference. She also serves as a member of the UI's Presidential Committee on Athletics, an advisory board to the president and athletics director.

She had critical words for the Faculty Council, the leadership body of the UI's Faculty Senate, for what she sees as lack of concern about student-athlete issues on the part of faculty leaders. Faculty should pay as much attention to athletic policies and issues as they do to discussions about employee benefits and tenure-review changes, Altmaier said.

“I'd like you to be better informed. I'd like you to have a faculty voice,” she said.

Altmaier raised to the Faculty Council her three main areas of concern: the exact role of the Presidential Committee on Athletics; that group's role in athletic facilities decisions on campus; and the UI's record of gender discrepancy in athletic scholarships, the worst in the Big Ten.

It is perhaps time for faculty leaders to revisit with President Sally Mason the role of the Presidential Committee on Athletics, Altmaier suggested.

“When do its policies stand and when don't they,” Altmaier said. “I think that's up for debate.”

She was not criticizing specific leaders like Athletics Director Gary Barta or coaches with her comments, Altmaier said. But she believes the level of faculty input, interest and involvement in athletics policies is wanting.

She noted that the last two meetings of the Presidential Committee on Athletics did not draw a quorum of members.