It is all the buzz on the campus of Rutgers University Thursday, remarks by a professor that some are calling racist.
The tenured English professor questions the intelligence of the student-athletes, singling out minorities.
New Jersey reporter Toni Yates has the story.
Is it really fair to label the professor's remarks racist? Or is he just very passionate about making sure that athletic scholarships go to the most academically qualified student athletes? Should he have said what he said a little differently?
Rutgers professor William Dowling is quoted in the New York Times while discussing the awarding of athletic scholarships.
"If you were giving the scholarship to an intellectually brilliant kid who happens to play a sport, that's fine," Dowling said. "But they give it to a functional illiterate who can't read a cereal box, and then make him spend 50 hours a week on physical skills. That's not opportunity. If you want to give financial help to minorities, go find the ones who are at the library after school."
We shared his quotes with Rutgers students.
"I think that's a disgusting, gross generalization," one student said.
"It's not only minorities who need help as far as it pertains to academics and athletics," another said.
Professor Dowling has for decades been a critic of large athletic programs as universities, as he outlines in his new book, "Confessions of a Spoiledsport." Obviously, many take issue with it.
"There are standards to get those scholarships," Rutgers grad A. Wesley Bridges said. "You have to have a certain academic achievement in high school."
Bridges went to Rutgers on a football scholarship. Now, he is a Manhattan attorney.
"I'm very proud to say that the program is doing well both academically and athletically," he said. "There are no student athletes that come here that can't read the back of a cereal box."
School president Richard McCormick issued the following statement.
"Professor Dowling's characterization of our student athletes is inaccurate and inhumane. It also has a racist implication that has no place whatsoever in our civil discourse."
"I don't think it's racist, but it's definitely charged," one student responded.
"It may not be racially charged," another said. "It's just ignorant in my opinion."
Professor Dowling, who has written 10 books, declined to comment.
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