Meeting Meehan

President discusses football, academics and the stadium

By: Doran Smith

Posted: 11/19/09

Smith: Moving to the stadium expansion, do you think that that it will interfere with other building projects?

Meehan: I don't think it will interfere with other building projects. The biggest part of the new that project is the 400 new rooms which we need on campus. Since I've been president, we've taken down four old style halls-Abercrombie, Luttrell, Weatherly, and Rowan Halls. Students, like you, just don't want to live in that type facility. Some groups like the old style halls, like the Marching Southerners love Dixon Hall, because it's convenient for them and it allows them to be together as a group. We want to create more community style living on campus. That is one of the reasons we bought Colonial Arms apartments. That is one of the reasons we are building the new 400 bed facility. Will it interfere? In what way do you mean? Financially, there is no doubt that it is expensive. It is a 65 million dollar project over 35 years, but it will be expensive to build anything today or in the future. We will want more apartment style living. We are already beginning the discussion about the next dormitories and the things we will add. You have to remember that the stadium portion is not the majority of it-it is the smaller portion of it-less than half.

Smith: What other building initiatives can we look forward to after the stadium is completed?

Meehan: Additional housing facilities in the style students want to have here. We also need another wing for the Ramona Wood building. I understand the college of education desperately needs the expansion there. We already have that laid out. We've talked to the governor about it and he knows that is something that we are very much after. And there will be other areas. The Nursing building is one we need to expand. If we have more faculty and a larger facility, we could double the number of nurses that we graduate at this point. So, we are planning to build for education, and nursing and living facilities-more dormitories are needed.

Smith: Students are upset about the stadium expansion because some of the football players are on academic probation and we can't even win the conference championship because of it? Is that right?

Meehan: We did not meet the historical 4 year average for our APR (academic progress rate). Every athletic team for every student that is a scholarship athlete has two points they have to earn. The first is earned by staying in school and working toward your degree. Two -being academically eligible. Two of our teams fell below those; our men's basketball team and our football team. This year they have already repaired that.

They were put on probation-put on restriction. We appealed with the NCAA. We had some penalties. There were scholarship reduction penalties, practice time penalties as well as the fact that we were not eligible for post season play. That means that you cannot win your conference championship and go on to the NCAA this year. But I can tell you that the team has already met that challenge. They will be academically, significantly above the minimum APR scores that are required by the NCAA. When the NCAA releases that information in the spring, both teams will be significantly above the minimum.

Smith: What would you say to students who don't understand why we are pouring so much money into the football stadium when our football players haven't met the guidelines for good academic standing?

Meehan: Well, you have to remember that is a historical 4-year average. So a lot of those who are currently playing football are not the ones that are responsible for that. They have made their good grades. But it is not just about that. As you know in the south, football is the number 1 sport. This is not true in other states. Football in the south is a social event for us. The stadium expansion will allow participation for more individuals and a type of football experience that we have not had here. This will give us the opportunity to bring in corporate entities and for them to have suites. That also puts the university in position in the future that, if they want to go to the bowl subdivision of division 1 (we are division 1 now and have been since 1995), we will have our physical facilities prepared and ready to go.