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Don't even think it--let alone write it

By Erin Buzuvis, Sudha Setty, and Kristine Newhall

The Union Tribune in San Diego has stirred up a bunch o' trouble with a recent editorial by a sports writer calling for the elimination of football at San Diego State University. The program is economically strained and economically draining. Recently the university raised its student fee to cover some of the athletic department's budget deficits.
But people, including SDSU president Stephen Weber, are not happy. Weber wrote his own letter to the SDSU community because the paper would not give him the same amount of space they gave their own writer to respond--though the paper did invite him to respond. Weber is firm in his stance that football will remain at SDSU for as long as he is president.
But even that unequivocal statement has not stemmed the responses pro and con to the editorial which were numbering close to 150 when the paper published what it called the most representative letters.
Of course Title IX has been invoked in various ways.
But surprisingly there are a lot of self-described football fans who support the initial argument against retaining the program. In fact the majority of the letters received were supportive. The poll the paper has put online shows a majority of people support retaining the team. Neither the letters nor the poll will reveal any kind of true community sentiment, of course. It is clear that strong sentiments exist on both sides and they are not likely to dissipate.

Full post as published by Title IX Blog on January 07, 2009 (boomark / email).