Unionization of Northwestern athletics against NCAA

Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 10 months ago to News
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The National Labor Relations Board in Chicago said that Northwestern's football team can unionize. I detest unions, but I can't say I like the NCAA either. Are the student-athletes employees or not?

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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    As I have said in other threads, it will be a bumpy ride kind of like a roller coaster. I am going to enjoy the ride as much as I can, because laughter is much more productive than melancholy.
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  • Posted by Notperfect 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I believe in time it will not matter. Starting this is compared to going down that slippery slope and the further down you get the faster you go. The ending is not pretty.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    This issue is a tough call for me. The NCAA are like overlords, but I don't like unions either. So far, here at a small private university like FIT, all involved seem satisfied with the scholarship for enhanced reputation trade. I just hope it stays that way. Many faculty here thought that having a football team would be a bad idea. I wasn't sure. However, winning our first game in our first attempt really was a great catalyst for some increased endowment income. Endowment income is the one thing that is most holding us back from competing against schools like MIT and Harvard at the graduate level. We already compete at that level with regard to undergrads, but the equipment infrastructure makes a huge difference at the grad level. We have enough equipment that individual faculty can compete, but not whole programs yet.
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  • Posted by RevJay4 11 years, 10 months ago
    Add to this decision, that the IRS has decided that "volunteer" firemen are to be considered employees of their district, though they receive no pay for their services. How will the IRS treat the players if they are members of a union for "value received" in light of this decision.
    Seems to me, the players would be taxed on that basis of value received. That would dissuade some from becoming players, so it seems to me.
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  • Posted by plusaf 11 years, 10 months ago
    Local discussions here in NC, where there are tons of rabid college sports teams' followers have included the point that the teams are money-makers for the colleges and their 'payment' is in athletic scholarships and similar kinds of financial remuneration and other perqs, so why not let them be 'real employees' and have unions or whatever?

    'Walks like a duck' logic to me... sounds sensible.

    As for injuries and all the rest, if they unionize, they could/should/would damned-well write 'employment contracts' that cover that stuff!

    I think it would bring more 'transparency' to the school/team 'relationship,' too.

    Should be fun to watch as it all develops...
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  • Posted by khalling 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I am sorry j. I had replied earlier to jan... was on my mind. I knew it was you ;) I tasked it. looking forward to it
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  • Posted by Boborobdos 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If individuals can gain from being in the group, the union, others will follow.

    Too bad union bosses don't represent members any better than corporate looters represent stockholders.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Who knows? If this goes well, perhaps I'll do a MOOC (massively online course) like Hillsdale College, but only . I forgot what the other O stands for in MOOC..
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I'll try to remember to do that, khalling. The absent-minded professor stereotype does apply to me, however. The webinar is at 11 AM Eastern on Thursday the 3rd. I think you do have to register.

    Educating future (and now current) Galts,
    Prof. Jim Brenner
    Florida Tech
    Nanotechnology Program Chair
    3217493437
    jbrenner@fit.edu
    http://my.fit.edu/~jbrenner

    If you go to the web site, the picture is ten years old, and I need to update my schedule. It is the same as last year's (which is what is on the site).
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Dear Robbie,
    It might be over your head, but I doubt it. Some of it probably will be, but most of it won't. I have learned one thing from Rush Limbaugh. The key to being an effective speaker is making the complex understandable. I am not the world's best researcher. In fact, I am not even close, but I can take a complicated subject and get people to understand it.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Probably be way over my head, but I just might listen in - who knows, even I might learn something.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No Rhodes scholars, but a lot of very talented student-athletes, mostly on soccer (excuse me, football), American football, lacrosse, swim, and golf teams. This is a big reason for our increased enrollment and visibility. Excellent trade, I think.

    As an example, one of our girls' volleyball team members got a 3.5 as an undergrad. She and her now husband both did outstanding master's theses with me that helped set a foundation for the nanotech minor program I will have a webinar for on Thursday, 4/3 at 11 Eastern. They are both about to defend their Ph.D.'s at Columbia.

    To register for the webinar, go to
    https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/registe...
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Have any Rhodes scholars in the athletics ranks? My alma mater has had a couple. And it wasn't any Ivy League namby pamby school either.

    Not me, of course!
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    It is hard to get on posters about spelling mistakes. If you use Internet Exploder instead of Google, you can't increase the size of your text box. Can we get Scott deSapio or somebody who works with him to allow us a couple of minutes to edit posts? I think the editing time now is about 20 or 30 seconds.
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  • Posted by $ jbrenner 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    The ruling about the NCAA is one I can see as possible even though I don't like it all. The decision about volunteer firemen by the IRS requires a Galtish chuckle as yet another sign of the end.
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  • Posted by Robbie53024 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Who's fault is it that an athlete "graduates" with merely a piece of paper instead of an education?
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  • Posted by Boborobdos 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    From Sneezzy: "The athletes are not given an education, but instead are promised a piece of paper that'll say they have graduated. "

    And that diminishes the degrees for all those who actually studied and earned their grade point average.

    Athletes representing schools should be paid and they should out of that pay for their education.

    That degree should be related to the sport they were apprenticing in (for the NFL or AFL). Sports science, health, management, or some such.
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  • Posted by $ Snezzy 11 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Why did I write four horse where I meant four hours? Why can't spellcheck read my mind?
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