Tuesday, March 5, 2013 |

   

  

TechNews

opinion@technewsiit.com

        

President Anderson, Director Mitchell
have failed IIT's scholarship athletes

Graeme Port
B.S. HUMANITIES ‘11

In the middle of June last year the
university’s Athletic Director, Enzley Mitchell,
finally announced that the school’s athletics
program would be making the transition from
the NAIA into the NCAA D3

The news came as no great surprise
to anyone connected with the department
given it had long been suspected that this had
been President John Anderson’s intention
since he first appointed Mitchell in 2010

Whether you agree with the associa
tion move or not (there are several valid rea
sons for and against making the change) one
thing that in my view is undeniable is the def
plorable way in which the university has went
about maneuvering the department in prepa
ration for the change

As an alumni of the Men’s Soccer
team and the exeSports Editor of TechNews (I
graduated in 2011), I find myself in a unique
position to speak out about the way in which
the department has acted since Mitchell took
control

During my final year and a half at
the university I witnessed firsthand how the
department treated their athletes under his
leadership, a style that can best be described as
that of a dictator

I am now also fortunate enough to
be free of the prospect of facing reprisals for
speaking out against the way in which the
Athletic Director has run the program since
he took over

This was a very real concern when I
was at the school and is a continuing problem
for many athletes who are still at IIT, who feel

Invitation to

Ciaran Kohli-Lynch
SPORTS EDITOR

When exeSports Editor of Tech,
News, Graeme Port, asked me if he could write
an article this week detailing the failures made
by IIT’s Athletics Department over the last
couple of years, I was delighted

Perhaps this is in part due to the fact
that I have been a varsity athlete at this col,
lege for the last four years, and share many of

the same way that I do about a number of is,
sues

For me, there are two major issues
that stand out as being head and shoulders
above the rest

The first of these is that the depart,
ment has effectively thrown its scholarship
athletes under a bus since Mitchell took con
trol Athletes who had been promised by the
previous Athletic Director, Lee Hitchen, that
they would receive full scholarships during
their collegiate career at the school have seen
this guarantee vanish

This has led to several student athe
letes who were over halfway through their def
grees at IIT being forced to fork out thousands
of dollars to pay ever rising tuition fees that
they never thought they would have to pay
when they started at IIT

This is most galling for the depart,
ment’s international athletes (a number which
will continue to drop now that the school
is planning to make the transition into the
NCAA D3) who can’t take out loans to cover
tuition costs due to the fact that they are not
American citizens

The second major issue that I, and
many others, have with the way in which the
move has been handled by Mitchell is his at
tempt to cover it up for as long as possible

It is almost certain that the school
had been planning to make the association
change since 2010, but whenI found out about
the possible move, from President Anderson
that same year, Mitchell told me bluntly that
he did not want me to inform students about
the potential moveI

Needless to say, I completely ige
nored the email he sent me and published the

article in TechNews anyway as I believed stu
dents had the right to know what the athletics
department was planning to do

The only reason I can think for why
he didn’t want the news to get out is because he
believed (rightly) that it would have a negative
effect on recruitment that year and that the def
partment would lose athletesI

Both of these things happened due
to the fact that everyone was aware that the
standard of varsity sports would drop consid
erably at the university with the loss of schole
arship money, something which has happened
across the board in every varsity sport since
Mitchell took control

This is a clear example of Mitchell
not looking out for the best interests of the
athletes within his department, which I be
lieve should be the first priority for any Athlete
ics DirectorIThe previous man in charge of the
department, Lee Hitchen, was by no means
the perfect Athletics Director, but every athe
lete in the department knew that they could
speak to him about any issues at any time and
that he would do everything he could to help
them out

You simply don’t get this from
Mitchell

However, he is not the only per,
son to blame during this transitional processI
President Anderson is also at fault for the fise
sures that have opened up within the depart,
ment

Mitchell’s leadership style has led to
a significant turn over in coaches and has left
countless athletes furious at the way in which
they have been treated, but a lack of funding
from the university is also to blame for many
of the problems

The need to improve facilities to
make the move into the NCAA is one reason
why the transition might be a good thing for
IIT, but the university has attempted to par
tially fund these upgrades by, as I discussed
above, withdrawing the continued scholarship
increases for athletes that they need to cover
their tuition fees

President Anderson is as much to
blame for this as the Athletic Director and I
strongly believe questions should be asked of
the decisions both men have made since they
began maneuvering IIT towards the NCAA
D 3 in 20 1 OI

Their actions have made a mockery
of a once competitive department that has
seen a steady decline in athletic standard since
Mitchell took control They have also betrayed
scholarship students who have been forced to
fork out thousands of dollars just to remain at
the school

All ofthis has been done so the def
partment can attempt to raise funds that the
university should already be making available
for much needed facility repairs and upgrades

The winners in the long run will be
the university and the future students who will
benefit from the improved facilities The 10s
ers have been the most talented athletes within
the department who have seen the standards
of their teams crumble and it become a finan
cial struggle just to remain in school

Serious questions should be asked
about how this situation has been allowed
to develop under the leadership of President
Anderson and his Athletic Director, Enzley
Mitchell

respond to ‘Anderson, Mitchell's failure'

Graeme’s grievances regarding decisions made
by both President John Anderson and Athletic
Director (and basketball head coach) Enzley
Mitchell

Above all else, the manner in which
Enzley Mitchell has dealt with student athlete
scholarships at the university has been disree
spectful, underhanded, and extremely costly
for a number of students

Like many student athletes, the first
notice I was given of the fact that my scholar,

President, Provost forum

(continued from Page 1)

id that these dec ions were not made in
a vacuum, and that student input
welcome He stressed that an}
about the budget should make those
known to him in the fall, when IIT yearly
budget was drafted SGA President Kelly Lohr
also used this question to talk about the posI
bility of SGA making a school budget adv ,
committee, and that anyone interested in do
ing this should talk to her
The next question posed

,' \ I I adding neI I} or I teams

mg sports teams needed more
sources Anderson took the floor to explain
that new sports teams e added in order to
meet the minimum requrements to be a part
of the NCAA D I on Three He said that the
I had to have one men’s team and one

women’s team every fall, winter, and spring in
order to join the NCAA The President also ex,
pre ed his belief that h; ing fewer teams did
not guarantee that tear uld do better, and

COHCEI‘I ‘

the uni
when e

that it is all about the teams 11;
cruiting, coaching, and mentoring This ques
tion also had a followup question re rding
the recruiting of coaches for the II

ing good ref

eams,
to w Ich Anderson responded that a lot of
eing done to hire new coachesI Ana
‘ d that the school just hired a new
ketball coach, and extremely

close to 1111 mg a women’s lacr se coach
The penultimate question regarded
the Fueling Innovation campaign and the

The Pre dent a
plained that of th'
ble at this time He said that 315% mil
lion of the mone in the form of tes,
uld not be getting it
He also said that
n‘ Iad immediately
been placed in IIT’s endowment, which gar,

ship would not be raised with tuition increases
was when I looked at my Fall 2011 bill Even
when one disregards the fraudulent nature of
Mitchell’s decision on this matter, it is simply
incredible that he did not have the decency to
inform athletes of such developments

I would like to offer both President
Anderson and Athletic Director Mitchell the
opportunity to explain themselves in the next
edition of TechNewsI

Particularly, I feel like they are re,

ners interest that can be used by the univere
I 1e President wrapped up hiI espons by
explaining that this money had been donated
by alumni to elevate the um i, not to keep
it running, and that tuition i Iat is used to
keep a university running
The fi 11 question of the forum
spoke of the un " current trend of in,
cr ising student enrollment and tuition, and
dec 'ng aid, and aimed that thi
ary to the un , I founding p 117
cipl I The question asked I I
' I from these principles The
ately questioned this quese
'ng that tuition \ ‘
I ty w I ab hed, and I
that IIT i cl er to i tounding p
than most L1111V ersItIes Prov ost Cramb then
took to the floor to hat IIT was founded
to support the city of Chic 0, and explained
the large number of schol; I ailable to
Chicago children and underp eged resi
dents of Chicago Cramb also explained that
the amount of aid given out as a whole does
not st ' constant The amount of aid that "
to be given out incre ‘ the number of

turning a
ent imme

sponsible for explaining two major issues be
tween themI

Firstly, why was so little information
given to athletes regarding the decision to eff
fectively cut scholarships?

Also, why was the decision to tran
sition from NAIA to NCAA Division 3 made
so privately, without reasonable consultation
from a wide range of people both within and
outwith the Athletics Department?

students does The President concluded this
question by having Mike Gosz take the floor,
who explained that the uni
to incr the aid given to i I I udents by not
dec scholarships unle a student drops
beloV 1 lo grade point average, w Iich it had
used to Gosz explained that IIT used to re,
duce a ‘tudent" schola hips depending on
their gr Itudent could get a 3 5 GPA and
still los cholar ip fun
' till followed by many uniy

With that question a ered, the
President and Pr 'ost Forum for the Spring
2013 semester came to a close Whether or
not the President and Pr sufiiciently
a I ered the many questio I of the student
body regarding tuition in 11d more is
yet to be seen, but it is very c ear from the
f um that the President and Provos 11d
r dy to defend ome of the contr 1
mo es the un yl I I ecently madeI

Still think tho ’ d all ,
tioizéDoiI’tfi‘ot,nu MLL ,SGAand II‘hNIMS

continues

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