Argument for D-III at Southeast

With the termination of its two basketball coaches, Southeast Missouri State has in the past 15 months paid out almost $270,000 to football and basketball coaches whose services were cut short. In addition, the school also incurs expenses of more than $1 million annually for the scholarships given to the athletes who play these sports. Put another way, studies indicate there is a 3-to-1 ratio between the amount spent per athlete as opposed to the smaller amount spent on the nonathlete student.

It is also interesting to note that only 31 percent of Southeast's approximately 11,000 students live on campus. This means that only a minority of the school's enrollment is affected by such traditional campus activities such as Greek life or intercollegiate athletics. In recent years this has been painfully obvious due to the rather small number of students who attend the athletic events. Furthermore, Southeast has a student-teacher ratio of 21-to-1. Only one other public university in Missouri has a ratio which is higher.

I would suggest that consideration be given to Southeast becoming a Division III NCAA school. It would appear that this action would save a fair amount of money since the schools that are members of Division III do not offer athletically related financial aid to their student-athletes. The money now spent on athletic scholarships could be used for improvements such as reduction of the student-teacher ratio and the refinement of new systems of schooling such as on line courses.

John Piepho, Cape Girardeau