UO faculty establish their “paramount authority” over Duck athletics

From the UO archives, 18 September 1895:

My OCR chokes on this, but it appoints a committee of 2 profs and 1 student and says

“… All proceedings of the Athletics Club concerning Intercollegiate games must have the approval of this committee. This shall in no way interfere with the paramount authority of the Faculty. The committee shall report to the Faculty at every regular meeting.”

1/31/2012: Back in 1895 the Ducks were leaders when it came to faculty governance of athletics. I’m no history professor, but Teddy Roosevelt didn’t found the NCAA until 1906, motivated in part by public outrage over what would now be called repeated MTBI, in part because he figured it would give Harvard an edge over the public universities with recruiting.

Since then, there’s been a certain amount of slippage here at UO, and nationwide. Harvard, however, is still embarrassing itself over sports. So is Yale. So is UO. Some things never change.

As for the NCAA and UO’s place in it, read the latest from NYT columnist Joe Nocera on what he calls the “moral bankruptcy” of the NCAA. UO Faculty Athletics Representative and former law professor Jim O’Fallon sits on their infractions committee. What was his role in this decision? Good question – but good luck trying to get our Faculty Athletics Representative to actually communicate with mere faculty. We do  have to pay his salary and expenses from academic funds, however.