12/7/11 – Charles Clotfelter, 12:00, Croasdaile Country Club.
The upcoming meeting of the Durham Sports Club will feature Charles Clotfelter, author of “Big-Time Sports in American Universities”.
For almost a century, big-time college sports has been a wildly popular but consistently problematic part of American higher education. The challenges it poses to traditional academic values have been recognized from the start, but they have grown more ominous in recent decades, as cable television has become ubiquitous, commercial opportunities have proliferated, and athletic budgets have ballooned. Drawing on new research findings, this book takes a fresh look at the role of commercial sports in American universities. It shows that, rather than being the inconsequential student activity that universities often imply that it is, big-time sports has become a core function of the universities that engage in it. For this reason, the book takes this function seriously and presents evidence necessary for a constructive perspective about its value. Although big-time sports surely creates worrying conflicts in values, it also brings with it some surprising positive consequences.
Clotfelter is the Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics and Law at Duke University. He is the author or coauthor of five previous books on topics including university economics, school desegregation, and state lotteries. At Duke he has served as vice chancellor and vice provost. He likes playing squash and golf, and he enjoys watching college sports.
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Mark Your Calendar
12/21/11 – Durham Sports Club’s Christmas Party Meeting
1/1/12 – Happy New Year!
1/4/12 – NO MEETING
1/18/12 – First Meeting of 2012