[The New York Times]
With the campus shrouded in a cold mist, it seemed fitting weather this morning at Southern Methodist University as the news spread of the temporary ”death” of the football team.
As representatives from the university and the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced that the football program had been suspended for one year and the 1988 schedule restricted to seven road games, emotions on the campus ranged from the philosophical and the funereal to frustration and anger.
At least 200 students and faculty members solemnly huddled to hear a live broadcast of the news conference that was taking place 50 yards away in the Umphrey Lee Student Center. With the announcement coming at 9 o’clock, the campus was waking up to the most severe sanctions yet imposed by the N.C.A.A. on a college football team.
”I couldn’t believe they’d do something that severe,” said Darin Boone, a 24-year-old history major and former linebacker at the school. ”I don’t understand why they blew this all out of proportion. They got what they wanted.” ‘Winning Had Taken Over’
”In light of the violations,” countered Leroy T. Howe, a professor of theology and the president of the Faculty Senate, ”we certainly got what we deserved. Winning had just taken over.”
Having referred to itself for years as ”the Harvard of the Southwest,” the university had recently moved to raise its academic reputation and strengthen its admission requirements and curriculum. Some students, trying to find more positive aspects in today’s ruling, expressed the hope that the punishment might alter the school’s focus for the better.
”I think it will change the school quite a bit,” said Cindy Angelcyk, a senior biology major and a cheerleader. ”S.M.U. will be more interested in academics. It’s going to put a damper on our weekends in the fall, though.” She said that it would also likely affect the cheerleader tryouts that were scheduled for this weekend.
”It’s really sad,” said Kristi Baarstad, a biology major, ”but it’s been going on for too long, and it had to stop. If this doesn’t do it, nothing will.” Enforcement Called ‘Selective’
”I feel a real sense of remorse and frustration,” said a member of the school’s Board of Trustees, who declined to be identified. ”You see what’s happening on so many other campuses and I think this is truly selective enforcement. The guilty folks aren’t being punished here and that’s a real inequity.”