Reply to thread

Message

[QUOTE="OttoMets, post: 2554463, member: 716"]
I think you're understating the appeal of facilities to faculty - they aren't just for the students. 'Employee' shouldn't be pejorative and if that's not part of the target audience, SU's not exercising its fiduciary responsibility to all of us to maintain the best institution it can. (Anecdotally, faculty members are in some ways more active users, since they're on campus 12 months a year and a lot of these people consistently use the gyms for competitive purposes 6 days a week. There's a decades-long tradition of strong competition in running and swimming among the faculty and there's no doubt in my mind that that strengthens the university by drawing in higher-quality faculty.)

This is one of a number of factors that affects quality of life and helps SU attract faculty in a highly competitive market. If SU can't accommodate them, you can bet there's some other school that will. If a regulation pool or an indoor 200-meter track can help sell a professor on SU, that should be taken into consideration. I guess her wording came off as arrogant, but it's true. SU suffers if it can't attract the best and brightest, both in student body and faculty/staff. In my opinion, standardized competitive athletic facilities offer more return on investment than bells and whistles do. For a professor with offers from both Purdue and Syracuse, proximity to a campus pool for lap swimming truly could be a tie-breaker. For a 1600-SAT student, I doubt "but they've got a lazy river" comes into play.

A lot of supposition on my part, I'll qualify that right now.
[/QUOTE]

Verification

What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?