Football at UCSD? Vote Will Tell if Idea Scores Touchdown
One of the first things a visitor notices about the UC San Diego campus is that it’s different from many others. It has no “drag,” rife with coffeehouses and smoky pubs, out of which pour New Wave music and political jive. It bears little resemblance to campuses in, say, Ann Arbor, Austin, Madison or even Palo Alto.
Another factor distinguishing UCSD from most schools is that it has no football team.
Soon, that could change.
Like a wobbly quarterback, the status quo is in danger of being sacked at UCSD.
On April 12 and 13, students will consider an initiative that would bankroll a Division III football team. A two-thirds majority is needed for approval, and at least 2,355 students--roughly 20% of the current enrollment--must vote to make the initiative binding. The measure passed last spring, but not enough students bothered to vote.
No quorum, no quarterback.
The estimated start-up cost of the program--more than $200,000--would come from an increase in student fees. Each student’s total fees would rise from $581 per academic quarter to about $625.
Some students are on the sidelines, feeling outraged.
“I really don’t care about football,” said Andrea Cellino, 28, a graduate student in history from northern Italy. “I am not a football player or a football fan.”
Like many students at UCSD, Cellino came to La Jolla from a foreign country. He did not come for intercollegiate football, to play it or to watch it, nor did he know that a portion of his money might be called upon to bankroll blocking and tackling.
“I don’t like that!” he said. “If that’s the way it is, no football at UCSD!”
Against Raising Fees
“UCSD should have its own team,” said Abeba Habtemariam, 22, a senior economics major from Ethiopia. “But fees should not go up. Football is for the university as a whole. Therefore, the university--and not the students--should pay for it.”
John Reed, a 26-year-old UCSD medical student, played football as an undergraduate at UC Berkeley. He appreciates many of the win-one-for-the-Gipper virtues of the game that legendary coach Vince Lombardi felt builds character. But Reed thinks football at this pristine La Jolla enclave is a silly--even spurious--idea.
“From the administration’s point of view, it’s an effort to generate alumni involvement,” Reed said. “As it is, UCSD has no alumni program, almost no alumni support. It’s a move toward tradition and school spirit, but UCSD wasn’t built on that kind of tradition. It just wouldn’t fly here. This is a non-traditional school. It wouldn’t gain alumni respect and thus it would fail for the very reason it’s being created.
“They need to look for something different--something more UCSD-ish. Why not put the money into an international soccer program, competing against teams from Mexico and South America? Gain an international name and generate some real respect that’s more in keeping with what the school’s all about.
“It won’t get support here, and as a former football player, I can tell you the players will fight a negative image the whole time,” Reed said. “Football generates animosity within any athletic program. It can support all the others, but here it’s conceived as--and will remain--an orphan child. Its start is shaky at best.”
Intramural Center Issue
Marcelino Ford-Livene, 21, a senior economics major from Claremont, Calif., objects because of the cost of the program and the threat posed to a new intramural center. The initiative to fund such a center will follow closely on the cleated heels of the football initiative. Ford-Livene’s fear is that football will pass and the intramural center--which, in his view, would benefit more students--would suffer a costly loss.
Matthew Rochios, a 21-year-old junior communications major from Oakland, can’t get excited about Division III competition--Cal State San Bernardino, Point Loma Nazarene, UC Santa Barbara, et al .
Ford-Livene said a football team could help school morale, which he feels is needed. He describes UCSD as a fragmented body of disparate schools, searching for unity but never quite finding it, like a football team filled more with egos than esprit de corps .
He said the school is apathetic and that a healthy dose of rah-rah wouldn’t hurt.
“It would give us something to do Friday night,” he said. “You know, this may be the weirdest campus in the whole United States. It has a great location. La Jolla could be a great college town, but it isn’t that yet.”
“Sometimes, I miss a more conventional college atmosphere,” Rochios said.
“I often wonder, if I had it to do over, if I would even opt for UCSD,” Ford-Livene said.
Ford-Livene said UCSD is “ridiculously competitive,” that students crave A’s the way running backs crave touchdowns, and that football might be a welcome escape from the rigors of academic discipline.
Sherrie McIntosh, a 21-year-old senior from Ojai, Calif., majoring in English literature, said she abandoned UCLA in favor of UCSD, hoping to get away from such things as football.
“I lived near a bunch of football players,” she said. “Football draws the wrong kind of crowd. Why compromise your academic standards to accommodate a bunch of misfits?”