Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

41° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Letter to the Editor: Unionization efforts won’t hurt Northwestern’s academic goals

Dear Editor,

This letter serves as a response to Norman C. Wang’s letter to the editor, “Student-athletes or athlete-employees?” on Jan. 30, 2014.

When discussing matters of practical (or even dire) importance for others, it’s important that those of us with little to gain or lose from the situation not let our opinions thereof degenerate into mere whim or pleasant fantasy. Unfortunately, Dr. Wang has done exactly this in his column.

The gist of Wang’s argument is that, in order for Northwestern athletics to maintain its university-unifying role, the athletes will have to remain “student-athletes.” Putting them on University payroll will turn these students into University employees and pseudo-students, thus severing the connection students and alumni currently feel with their real classmates on the field.

This is obviously ridiculous. Wang forgets that in this new world, where athletes are actually paid for the work they do in entertaining fans and earning the University and the NCAA millions of dollars, these athletes will still go to class, study, earn grades, live in dorms and be, well, students. Many graduate (and undergraduate!) students are already considered University employees and in no way does this undermine their status as students.

Dr. Wang claims to acknowledge the failings of the current system, but rejects an extremely intuitive and feasible solution to these problems on no evidence whatsoever. If a necessary part of Dr. Wang’s enjoyment of sports is in the knowledge that each and every player is denied what they have earned due to an arbitrary distinction between “amateur” and “professional,” that is on Dr. Wang. But to bring his uniquely personal preferences into a public debate concerning the well-being of our fellow students is entirely unjustified.

Sincerely,
Daniel Olson,
Weinberg senior

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Letter to the Editor: Unionization efforts won’t hurt Northwestern’s academic goals