webfoot wrote:
Vortex: This is about the right of a student to attend the university they think gives them the greatest chance for success.
I understand your disappointment, but wishing ill will towards Dunbar is juvenile. Dunbar was attending the University of Portland, not some gang or tribe. You need to put it in perspective.
One more thing: a student on athletic scholarship is not an indentured servant. If a coach tells a student that they "owe" the unversity, then it really is time to get the hell out of there.
University of Portland is a fine school and they have a great coach in Conner. I bet Portland gets more runners transferring in than out.
I don't think anybody here has argued that a student doesn't have the right to attend whatever university he or she thinks will offer the greatest chance for success. However, supporters of the program that is being abandoned have a right to think less of the individual who is leaving said program as well. Dunbar was attending the University of Portland, and he was on a college cross country team, which does happen to be very much like a gang or tribe. Have you ever been on a college cross country team? If you have, you would know what I mean.
I believe a student on an athletic scholarship does have a responsibility to the university to train and compete to the best of his ability in the sport. I don't know if that is considered indentured servitude, but the school is providing the student with an education, room and board, etc., and thus I believe the student does have an obligation to fulfill. Now if the coach is holding this over the student's head as a threat or something to that extent, then that is not right. However, I have no reason to believe that anything like that has ever happened at Portland.
I hope Dunbar continues to develop into a fine runner, and I also hope UPXC, and Washington State for that matter, continues to wax the Ducks in Cross Country.