Five Scholarly Sources and Research Question

My sources: 

• Benford, Robert D. "THE COLLEGE SPORTS REFORM MOVEMENT: Reframing the “Edutainment” Industry." Sociological Quarterly 48.1 (2007): 1-28. Print. 
• Carey, Jack. "Knight Commission: Athletics Vs. Academic Spending Too Unbalanced." USA TodayPrint. 
• Dowling, William C. Confessions of a Spoilsport: My Life and Hard Times Fighting Sports Corruption at an Old Eastern University. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2007. Print. 
• Goidel, Robert, and John Maxwell Hamilton. "Strengthening Higher Education through Gridiron Success? Public Perceptions of the Impact of National Football Championships on Academic Quality." Conference Papers -- American Association for Public Opinion Research (2005): 1. Print. 
• Pine, Nathan. "The Role of Athletics in the Academy: An Alternative Approach to Financial Investment." Journal of Sport & Social Issues 34.4 (2010): 475-80. Print. 

Research Question (still in the works):

Is there room for athletics in modern higher education? How has the overabundance of funding led to corruption within athletics and a loss in the quality of academics?

Unmaking the Public University

Well, another week has gone by, I intended on going to the Public University in Higher Education conference, but unfortunately couldn't make due to a change in my work schedule. I submitted the final draft for my analytic essay, but it was late as a result of me misreading the terms of the due date. Overall I think it was one of the most interesting topics I've ever written about; that is because as a student of higher education I can relate to the issue. Although I was unable to attend the conference I did do some research on one of the speakers who is a major advocate against the spread of privatization in American public colleges. Christopher Newfield, a University of California English professor, has written and spoken about the intrusion of privatization on public universities. The privatized institution is one that is focused on financial prosperity rather than the quality of education. I came across and article that is basically a criticism of Newfield's book "Unmaking the Public University and seems to explain the key points that Newfield makes while also offering some additional insight on the issue.(http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/140539-unmaking-the-public-university-by-christopher-newfield/P0). As stated in the article Christopher Newfield's 'Unmaking the Public University', "budgets shifted expenses through a reliance on teaching assistants and “visiting” rather than full-time (and tenured) faculty"(Murphy). Quality, educated faculty are being overlooked and cut in an effort for the institution to save money, as a result there are more TA's that get paid a lot less than a full-time professor would. This robs both teachers from their jobs, and students from receiving the best education for their money. Tuition rates are on the rise because state funding is decreasing; tuition rates make up for the loss of state funding, but what is there to show for it?  Technically there should not be a shift in quality if money isn't being lost. Higher education is making the shift to capitalism and it is becoming a business that prays on young students that aspire to gain freedom and opportunity from college. Murphy states, "Universities can’t be capitalist. They need to balance their books, but they need to teach from books, and produce more books, that challenge profit as the price of everything and the value of nothing". Higher education can't just sit on the sidelines and watch as the value of education diminishes, and college becomes more and more difficult for middle to lower class people to attend. College isn't about money, but academics and education; its something that should be attainable by everyone. If public universities are to become privatized the future could very well be grim for higher education, since the majority of people will not be able to attend, and the value of a college degree will all but disappear. 

RIOT review

I just finished the Rutgers RIOT tutorial and I have to say it's pretty informative. One of the things I liked most about it was the fact that you actually have to interact with the program, it makes things more interesting and keeps you pay attention. In a way its actually kind of fun and does a good job of appealing to the student. I learned a lot about research going through the program. It first touches on narrowing a research topic down to something thats manageable, yet allowing for enough to be written about. The second subject was using databases such as EBSCO host, which is much more reliable and easier to use than search engines such as google when trying to find sources for a research topic. My favorite thing (which I didn't know about) was Refworks. This seems like it makes citations so much easier by basically doing it for you. It helps you keep tract of your sources and in the end takes a load of during the last minutes before the paper is due. Keeping an organized log of sources is also something that makes things much easier so that you don't lose tract of the all the different sources that you've found. The library offers so much, and I plan to use it to its fullest potential to find the information that I need for my research paper. I like how you can use the database and find articles at no expense to you. I plan on doing the some thing that the videos showed to narrow the topic down to something interesting and easily manageable.

Analytic Essay and Privatization

It is now week 4 of the class, and I'm still not exactly sure about what I want my research paper to be about. I'm taking another class that recently touched on issues with the football program, and how athletics seems to have taken a priority over academics in terms of funding. This is an interesting topic because it can incorporate privatization and how it could effect college sports. I saw another student in the class is doing their research paper on something similar, so maybe I could focus on the football program specifically; dive into how college sports are essentially clouding the true value of higher education. Students view athletic programs as part of the college experience; there is an overwhelming focus on things that should not be taking priority over academics. The football program currently loses a lot more money than it brings in, and funding that should be going towards the salary of professors and other factors that benefit academics is being cut to make up for the immense deficit that is created by the football program. There needs to be a balance between college athletic programs and academics. If anything is to get cut it should be athletics. If privatization were to prevail it would be the students that ultimate suffer, because tuition rates would rise in an effort to make up for the funding lost from the government. 

If schools are on an inevitable path to become privatized where would the money come from to fund athletics? Would there be any room for athletics in higher education? Is there room for both athletics and academics in a privatized institution?