In class on Tuesday, Dean Brady posed this question: « Who is the more important hire for Penn State, the head football coach or the president of the university? ». It seems that the answer is obvious, that logically, we should all think that hiring a new president for the university is much more important than hiring the new football coach due to the sheer difference of responsibilities that are bestowed in these two different people. However, the question and answer are not necessarily that simple.
I would like to think that in a general sense, the new president of the university is a much more important hire than the new football coach. After all, the woman or man that goes on to become president of the university will be responsible for the high-class education of roughly 100,000 students, and the jobs of thousands of faculty and staff on an annual basis and will essentially become the “CEO” of a 4.4 billion dollar business. The head football coach is responsible for a little less than 200 students plus the support staff. I will not neglect the fact that Penn State football program generates enough revenue to sport all of the other sports at the university, not to mention that we just love football. Fair enough. This being said, there is no question that the responsibilities of the head coach pale in comparison to those of the president. In my mind, this should lead to the obvious conclusion that hiring a new president is more important than hiring a new coach. However, I am not convinced that everyone agrees with this logic.
An argument was made in class that although the president ultimately has much more responsibility than the coach and plays a larger role at the university, the head football coach serves as the main public figure for the university and thus is the person that people outside of the Penn State community are most likely to associate with the school. I agree 100% with this point. Football is a major part of American culture and I believe it is fair to say that on a national scale people pay much more attention to the Penn State football than Penn State as a whole.
It also must be recognized that Penn State football plays a key role in the success of many local businesses in State College, which is a critical part of the thriving community. A graduate student once asked me to contemplate what would happen to the State College community if the Penn State football program had gotten the death penalty. Before I could really come up with an answer he said that the town would basically die off. Although this seems like a rather extreme response it is to some extent true. Many jobs would be lost in the hotel, restaurant and retail industry of State College because of lost business on football weekends. When laid out like this, it leaves no doubt that the hire of a new football coach is crucial to the prosperity of the university and the surrounding community.
Now let’s go back to hiring a new president. As previously mentioned, the man or woman that goes on to become the new president of Penn State will have much more responsibility than the head football coach. This hire will not only affect the Penn State, and State College communities but Centre County as a whole (Penn State is the number one employer in Centre County) and the entire state of Pennsylvania where it is ranked 7th among the top 50 employers in the state.
It is important to reflect on the president’s role strictly within the university itself. The president is the leader of the entire university whose main mission is to provide a world-class education to its students across many different fields, which is slightly more important than having a football team. Without good leadership and guidance from the president (and of course the people that work with him/ her), the university would not be able to continue to provide the same quality education and opportunities to its students, hence it would not be able to fulfill its mission.
As Dean Brady pointed out at the end of our discussion, Penn State and the surrounding community would survive without the football program. I believe this to be true. However, the university would ultimately fail without a good leader at its head. The consequences of a failing university would be much more grave than those of not having a football team.
Now, I would like to address that the fact that this question even has to be asked is a bit absurd. It makes me really reflect on the values of American society. Do we value sports more than education? What place do varsity sports and the NCAA have at any higher educational institution? I don’t have the answers to these questions but I think that the question of collegiate sports is one that would be really interesting to explore in our policy papers.
Here are the links to support the numbers I used in this essay:
http://www.budget.psu.edu/openbudget/default.aspx
http://www.budget.psu.edu/PublicAccount/headcountandsalaryreports.asp?adminarea=UP&ReportFlag=2
http://www.statecollege.com/demographics/pa_top25employers.php
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1222720&mode=2
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/psu/sports/m-footbl/auto_pdf/2013-14/roster/roster_num.pdf
http://www.budget.psu.edu/FactBook/StudentDynamic/EnrollmentFallToFallComparison.aspx?SemesterCodes=201213FA201314FA&FBPlusIndc=N