Debate: College football

Is college football a positive influence in American universities? Debating this topic are professors Thomas Palaima and Lino Graglia. Lino Graglia is the Dalton Cross Professor of Law. Professor Graglia has written that big-time college football is a “fraudulent enterprise.” Thomas Palaima is the Raymond F. Dickson Centennial Professor and founding Director of the Program in Aegean Scripts and Prehistory in the Department of Classics. He is also UT’s representative to the national Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics. The event was the second in a series called the Texas Chautauquas, faculty debates on issues of local and national interest that are hosted by the Texas IP Fellows program at the University of Texas at Austin. Texas IP Fellows are Natural Science and Liberal Arts majors who design interdisciplinary minors on topics of personal interest.

Rhode Island, one of 16 state finalists in Phase 1 of Race to the Top, made a presentation on its application to peer reviewers on March 16-17, 2010.