WWU loses a great tradition

PAIN and anguish radiate from the news accounts of the abrupt end of college football at Western Washington University.

Athletes, students, coaches, parents and alumni are reeling. It's a stunning demise for a program whose roots date to 1903. The decision by President Bruce Shepard to act on the recommendation of the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics is breathtaking and brave all at once.

Universities exist to educate young minds and train the next generation for a productive role in society and the economy. Such burnished sentiments are well understood and receive reflexive, nodding approval. But, c'mon, college football on crisp, fall Saturdays is the stuff of long-term campus memories.

Axing the top sport from the top of the list of alumni emotional attachments runs the risk of also trimming future donations that support and enrich academic programs. Or so one school of thought suggests.

WWU appears to have come at the calculation a bit more broadly. The university's sports budget has struggled with deficits for five years. Cutting the program with the highest overhead would allow a rich menu of other sports to stay in the black and even thrive, maximizing student participation, and fueling memories and loyalties of their own.

The opportunity also exists to enhance club sports among the school's 13,000 students. Funding links might not be direct, but if the goal is to tune minds and bodies alike, then turn out as many Viking squads as possible.

Western is honoring its commitment to ballplayers with scholarships as long as they remain on campus. Every effort ought to be made to smooth eligibility requirements for those who wish to transfer. The guiding principle is, they did not invite this complication, it was thrust upon them.

For all the disappointment and heartbreak, Western's mission is to educate students. This is also an area where effort, innovation and constructive use of resources ought to be the measure. In November, the university announced it will offer three degree programs through the University Center of North Puget Sound in Everett.

The respected Huxley College of the Environment will offer degrees in environmental science and environmental policy. Western will also offer a master's degree in teaching. These are excellent opportunities and a good fit for Snohomish County, which is desperate for access to higher education.

College football fans are understandably upset by Western's decision. The true measure of the school, however, runs the gamut from national champion women's crew to academic programs attuned to the needs of the region.