The madness of rock-climbing walls

It is March Madness here in the US, and this means nothing to the rest of the world--as it should be.  In fact, I would rather that there were no March Madness even here in the US!

March Madness is when people can engage in betting in their work places.  It is when even the uber-left professors* will forget how the system screws the folk.  It is college basketball championship rounds.  Supposedly an amateur event, there are billions to made by corporations, the NCAA, the coaches, and the universities.

Apparently having good sports teams and athletics facilities are all that really matter in the part of higher education to which people really do not have to engage in fraud in order to get admission!  Because, once you have those, then students come in even from afar, from outside the state. And, getting those out-of-state students is a big moneymaker for publicly-supported universities, which otherwise won't be able to fund the multi-million dollar compensation for coaches!

So, these universities fall over each other in order to recruit students from other states.  Often, these out-of-state students are also less-capable ones who "had been rejected by their home flagships."; the more capable are able to find seats in their own states, which makes tuition more affordable.

And, what exactly are these less-capable students looking for?  Ahem, ""What these less-than-top-notch scholars may be most interested in ... are amenities like rock-climbing gyms and lazy rivers."

Such is the state of "higher" education in the country!

Even our small school spent a nauseating amount of money in order to build a flashy new gym with a rock-climbing wall and an indoor pool.  I blogged about this back in 2011--eight years ago.

A few months ago, I wrote to the university's budget committee that the university should rethink its allocation for athletics.  Guess what happened?  They did not consider it worth discussing.

* Years ago, in a newspaper op-ed I included a comment on how even leftist faculty are all in support of college sports.  Ooooh, I touched a raw nerve ;)  A loud leftist faculty wrote in a campus distribution list (which included me) linking me and Faux News' glenn beck ... hahahahaha