Solution Essay: Final Draft

Solution Essay

Although I understand that UAF athletic department is losing money and therefore next year cutting team funding and reducing the number of scholarships available next year to get back on budget, they should seek additional funding to keep from down sizing because teams need to bring in new recruits to be successful, continue a winning tradition, and show the students at the university that they care about their athletics.
Recently, UAF athletes were informed that due to financial reasons, every sport at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will be loosing two athletic scholarships this up coming year, and also will not be paying for summer school housing and classes. This is a huge deal for athletes. Unfortunately, even after corporate sponsorships, alumni donations, money allotted by the state for athletics, that athletic department at UAF is still loosing considerable amount of money. The best guess as to why the school is loosing money is because of all the travel costs. Most teams go on at least 4 road trips a season. If a team has 10 players and two coaches times 4 trips minimum, that can add up in a hurry. Another factor for loosing money is that we don’t have football at this school. Schools with football do a lot better financially because ticket revenue alone from games is enough to cover most athletic departments. Since UAF is without a football team, it puts a strain on the athletic department.
Loosing two scholarships and no summer school is vital to the success of a sports team at UAF. Most of the athletes at this school come from states besides Alaska. It is hard to convince a young adult to venture far north, to the ends of the earth to go to school. Offering them a full scholarship is a great bargaining tool. Summer school paid for is another great tool. Most athletes take a smaller course load in order to balance both school and sports, and therefore sometimes need more than four years to graduate. Offering to pay for summer school and somewhere to stay enables the athlete to stay for the summer and catch up on classes so that they will be able to graduate in the standard four years.
Scholarships are essential for bringing in new recruits from year to year. Athletes graduate or leave due to various reasons, and are replaced the following year. These athletes are replaced with new ones. These new athletes are given the old players scholarship. However if two scholarships are taken away, and you have two people graduate, a coach would not be able to recruit anyone the following year. This would mean that the team would not be able to reload and upgrade, instead would have to stick with what they had the previous year. This does not allow a team to improve and get better, and could factor into less wins the next season. If someone were to ask a college coach what one of the keys was to having a successful team, recruiting would be in the top three.
All schools at all levels want their students to get the best grades as possible first and foremost. They also however want their athletic teams to do well, meaning win. If schools didn’t care about being successful, there would never be any coaches getting fired. This is not the case I am afraid. Schools have an athletic tradition, and like to see it carried on from year to year. By taking away scholarships, it could potentially put a hamper on this tradition of excellence. UAF has always had a high standard of academic and athletic excellence, and would not like to see it regress. This could happen with the reduction of scholarships.
College sports are a form of entertainment for students. Universities take pride in their athletic teams, should do whatever it takes to put the best product on the playing field, without sacrificing anything academic. Obviously the athletic department has exhausted all of their resources and have been forced to make budget cuts. It is not the future or potential athlete that is affected by this reduction, it is the current athlete brought in before the cuts that are. All of these statements above are reasons why scholarships should not be cut. The community needs to rally around the UAF and come up with a viable option to stop the budget cuts. Weather it is paying more for tickets, charging every student at the university X amount of dollars to help support the athletic department.
College athletics is a vital part of the Fairbanks community. In this small town, most college events are the biggest thing in town. We do not have a pro sports team, so college is the highest level to watch. Good sports teams have been synonymous with Fairbanks for quite some time, and I would hate to see that falter due to the reduction of scholarships by the athletic department. Next time there is a college sport going on around Fairbanks, come out and show and voice your support, because these athletes truly need it in more ways then one.