ASU Axes 3 World Class Sports But Keeps Building And Expanding!

Last week Lisa Love, the head of the Arizona State University athletic department, announced that the men's swimming, wrestling and tennis programs would be cut due to budget deficits.

Now, I understand that the women's programs couldn't be touched because of Title IX, the statute created to prohibit sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal financial assistance, but let's get real here.

My perception is that every time I travel through the ASU campus area all I see are new buildings going up in just about any direction you look and that's not counting the extensive expansion of ASU into the downtown Phoenix area. If ASU can afford the extraordinary, multi-billion (with a "B") dollar expansion programs that seem to far exceed the simple concept of keeping up with its growth then why in the world can't they continue to support ALL the women's AND men's programs that enhance the growth and development of its own students? Isn't that what a STATE university is supposed to be all about? Of course, the bottom line is that these sports don't make the kind of money for the university that football, basketball and baseball generate but does that mean that they're any less an integral part of higher education than those mainstream sports? When was the last time you saw a football game played in the world olympics?

If you have to cut proven and well established student programs to build more buildings then something isn't working.

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