LETTERS

...Chancellor Reynolds did not initiate the request to acquire these automobiles, did not direct their procurement, nor did she play any role in the public bidding process that led to their acquisition...

...Though Mr...

...W. Ann Reynolds resigned as chancellor of the California State University System over those pay raises (they were larger than only 15 to 26 percent, some ranged up to 41 percent...

...Higher education today is not held in very high esteem because higher education’s role has been perverted...

...And if colleges failed to teach anything to scholarship athletes, they would have to pay a price,in terms of semi-literate exjocks discomfiting big-deal donors and the fathers of incoming freshmen girls with their physical presence on campus, not conveniently shipped back to anonymity in backwoods Georgia or the Newark streets when their onfield market value expires, as with the current system...

...I must let you know from California that there is some justice, maybe...

...Carter is the executive vice-chancellor of the Calfornia State University...

...JOSEPH W. KOLETAR Glen Rock, New Jersey Your NCAA hypocrisy story was well done, but the solution advanced-formal salaries for college athletes-falls into the category of Never Happen...

...So what...

...HERBERT L. CARTER Long Beach, California Mr...

...DENNIS HILL Mandan, North Dakota Mr...

...Except for the cost of the cars cited in your article, all of the other comments were errors of fact...

...Your article implied wrongdoing by the chancellor when there was none...

...The pay raises also were rolled back to the 4.1 percent received by all of the faculty...

...HENRY COLEMAN Williamsburg, Virginia Although I enjoy your magazine immensely, I must take issue with your recent article on college sports...

...It would create a financial incentive for colleges to start making valid efforts to educate big sports participants, so they wouldn’t hang around later running up the bill...

...Such a system would reward players without having to raise the contentious issue of direct pay: The focus would be on education, what college is supposedly for, not money...

...This way it would not be...

...These days, affordable electricity is certainly a right the government must ensure...

...The article further imputed that this particular procurement had been handled in a fashion that subverted state expenditure controls...

...Those cars were taken away from those vice-chancellors and sent off to the motor pool...

...So wouldn’t it make more sense to provide govemment assistance (through a tax credit) directly to those poor North Dakotans (and poor Chicagoans) who can’t afford power, rather than shovel that assistance to big companies without regard for need...

...After their senior years and the pro draft many college jocks wake up and wish they’d studied, but by then it’s too late...

...As the person responsible for procurements in the CSU office of the chancellor, I can attest that all state regulations were adhered to in the acquisition, assignment, and use of the automobiles in question...

...If our budget negotiators make living, working, and walking in North Dakotans’ shoes their chief criterion for deficit reduction, they’re unlikely to make much progress...

...However, Ann found herself a new job as head of the City College of New York, at a pay increase...

...In so doing, you unfairly impugned the reputation of one of higher education’s most highly respected leaders...

...Some 76,000 consumer members and their families-nearly one-third of our state’s population-rely on electric cooperatives for the power that runs and lights their farms, ranches, and small businesses...

...What’s the aggregate cost of basic electrical service to an average North Dakotan...

...Let’s grant that North Dakotans would have to pay an extra $12.50 or $16.60 per month without the REA...

...A survey we completed two years ago said the average consumer in our state would pay from $150 to $200 more each year in interest costs alone if money for construction suddenly had to be borrowed at market rates...

...Hill points out that rural companies generate less revenue per mile of line, he neglects to mention that, as I wrote, those companies save money where urban ones can’t: for example, they tend to pay less for labor and for central plant equipment...

...Before we throw the present system out, perhaps we should truly try fixing it...

...For those who say, “We receive free publicity from sports and that keeps the school name in the public eye,” stop...

...DONALD E. LAPLANTE Downey, California Strapped jocks It was with much interest that I read Louis Barbash’s article on cleaning up college sports [“Clean Up or Pay Up,” July/August...

...LETTERS Reynolds rap The Washington Monthly attributed to W. Ann Reynolds, the chancellor of the California State University, the responsibility for having authorized the purchase of six Taurus automobiles for use by CSU vice chancellors [“Tilting at Windmills,” July/August...

...and we invest more than $14,000 for each meter we serve while the investor-owned utilities in our state invest but $3,500...

...And we are hardly the only school achieving this supposedly impossible goal...

...The argument, however, was seriously weakened by failing to include any evidence of those instances in which the present, nonprofessional system does run in a manner becoming to both athletics and education...

...cheap electricity is not...

...I invite you to visit the great state of North Dakota, to see first hand how important and spectacularly successful the REA lending program has been in our state...

...Hill is executive vice-president of the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives...

...We often say to those who criticize programs our nation’s farmers and ranchers depend on that “I trust your cupboard was well-stocked and your home was well-heated as you leveled that criticism...

...Certainly, there is big money involved, and it goes to support 20-plus nonrevenue sports, which, frankly, could not exist on their own...

...High costs...

...If a potential student chooses a school because of its football team, basketball team, etc., is that student really interested in education...

...Another great example of how public agencies tend to read a resume and believe, instead of doing a little checking on their own...

...The editor replies: As I wrote in my story, there is simply no evidence that it’s more expensive to provide electrical service in rural areas...

...Think...

...She resigned about 10 minutes before the Board of Trustees was prepared to fire her...

...We have but 1.6 consumers for each mile of line we build...

...City dwellers have to pay market interest costs...

...Power play Your article [“Power Failure,” James Bennet, July/August] is certainly not based on reality research...

...The main reason...

...I believe my own alma mater, Penn State, has for decades set an example of true student athletes earning degrees while fielding nationally competitive teams...

...Here’s my alternative: for each year of NCAA major sports participation, the player gets an extra year of tuition, room, and board...

...GREGG EASTERBROOK Washington, D.C...

...Hill doesn’t say...

...We don’t appreciate having a program we need to help keep the price of electricity affordable in rural areas trampled by those who have not lived, worked, nor walked in our shoes...

...we gross $2,700 in revenue for each mile, compared to $25,000 for our state’s investor-owned utilities...

...I hope they rely on common sense instead...

...Under this formula when the typical athlete exhausts his sports eligibility and finally realizes he isn’t going to the pros, instead of being tossed onto the trash heap he could still take four years of college-without the distraction of sports, with the bracing knowledge that the real world awaits him...

...As long as having a winning team is the focus of attention at institutions of higher learning, education will not be served...

...The newspaper reports indicated that the CCNY Board was not particularly aware of the problems she had in California...

...Many of the points are well taken...