Lincoln Journal Star: NU president defends players’ right to kneel following critical comments from regent
Nebraska's Michael Rose-Ivey with a powerful statement in today's press conference. Says fans told him he should "be hung before the anthem" pic.twitter.com/NJjEMnUYhd
— Jordan Heck (@JordanHeckFF) September 26, 2016
As more criticism was focused on the three Husker players who chose to kneel during the national anthem, the university’s president strongly defended their rights on Tuesday.
University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds said he “completely opposes” imposing any actions against the players or changing any policies that would restrict their ability to express themselves.
Earlier Tuesday, an NU regent said Huskers Michael Rose-Ivey, DaiShon Neal and Mohamed Barry, the three players who chose to kneel as the national anthem was performed Saturday at Northwestern, demonstrated “poor judgment” and offensive behavior.
It has been stunning to watch just how well this movement has exposed the hypocrisy it was targeted at.
Now (as a Niners fan) I just hope good-Colin comes back and wins us some football games too.Report
The kneeling must not be having an impact on the charitable donations.Report
NU’s a state school, right?
AIUI that means they probably can’t (constitutionally) punish the players for doing this, in much the way that the Constitution does (or at least should) prevent state schools from adopting restrictive speech codes.Report
For a second I wondered “Do State Schools have endowments?” and, as it turns out, they do.
Oh, I’m certain that they can’t punish the players for doing this, but the coach can make coaching decisions that are constitutionally protected and the administration can say something like “we’re not punishing the players! But we also support Coach Bagadonuts” and if the kneeling threatened the projected rate of growth of the endowment, I reckon we’d see arguments over whether being benched is a punishment.
We aren’t. Therefore this isn’t having an impact on the endowment.Report
For a second I wondered “Do State Schools have endowments?” and, as it turns out, they do.
For financial purposes, the NU athletic department is a distinct legal entity ultimately controlled by the University. By law, neither the state government nor the University can transfer money to the department. The department sends money in the other direction by paying for services: tuition, room and board, etc. The department has also contributed to construction of some campus facilities. The football stadium is owned by the University but operated by the department. Funding for stadium expansions is… complicated.
It is an unusual arrangement for an NCAA school. Among things enabled by the legal line is that the department can have its own reserve fund for unanticipated expenses. When Bo Pelini was fired, the money to buy out his contract came from that reserve.Report
Hrm.
That makes this a lot more difficult to read.Report
It *is* unusual, or it’s *not* unusual? Serious question, because I thought how you described the arrangement is exactly how it worked pretty much everywhere. Even in high schools, there are ‘athletic boosters’ clubs that have their own pot of money independent of the school or school district. (Even high school marching bands often have the same thing)Report
Booster clubs raise money, but they don’t run the program. Nebraska Athletics is the program — hires the coaches, manages the facilities, files the NCAA reports, etc. Fund raising in the booster club sense is only a small part of what they do, and that’s at arms length to keep on the proper side of the NCAA rules.
Nebraska’s arrangement, with the legal dotted line, is unusual. IIRC, there are only seven NCAA institutions in the country with this kind of setup.Report
I don’t know whether the arrangement for “the university’s” endowment is also peculiar or not, but the University of Nebraska Foundation is a separate legal entity. Of the Foundation’s total $1.5B endowment, only $300M is money (plus earnings, less transfers back to the University) that was given directly to the University. The University pays a fee to the Foundation to manage those funds. The other 80% is the Foundation’s, a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose purpose is “the advancement of the University of Nebraska”.
As a life member of the alumni association — they offered a bargain-basement price a couple of years after I graduated — I receive official solicitations for donations from the Foundation, not from the University.Report
If college coaches won’t bench players for DUI or sexual assault accusations, but they will for kneeling during the anthem, this is doing an amazing job of revealing hypocrisy.Report
It looks like they won’t bench them for anything.
Hurray! No hypocrisy!Report
In the past 15 years, Nebraska has fired a coach who won 75% of his games and one who won 70%. I suspect Riley is smart enough to realize that losing an extra game by keeping a player off the field is a bigger risk to his job than a pissed off regent.Report
Maybe it’s that simple.
They don’t care if you burn people in effigy if you catch the ball and carry it to a touchdown.
They don’t care if you volunteer at the shelter every day after practice if you fumble it.Report