Monday, February 5, 2001
Accountants with no backbone
Self-study nears completion
National ‘Federalism and the Courts’ conference convenes here
Campus Closeup
Kudos
Three senior communications staff members assume new positions
Retirees
Service with a smile

Forum essay
The culture of spectacle
By James J. Dowd
weberian@uga.edu

I am writing this note on Christmas morning. It’s a beautiful day in Athens, clear and crisp—just perfect for a nice walk through the woods. Inside, where I sit in my usual spot, sipping coffee and reading the papers, the wood-burning stove hums a nice rhythm as it extrudes warm air through its vents. Carols murmur from the radio in the kitchen, making the room feel like a scene on one of the holiday cards taped over the doorway. Capping off this perfect morning is the news from Hawaii that the Georgia Bulldogs convincingly defeated the Virginia Cavaliers in last night’s Oahu Bowl. With the win, the team finished its season at 8–4, establishing a new Georgia record for consecutive bowl wins. Although I am not a particular fan of football, having attended only two home games in the 24 years I’ve been employed at the university, I felt very good about the victory, for the team, for the school and, especially, for the coach. Some narratives simply require, for justice’s sake, a happy ending. There was justice in this ending, and a bit of redemption as well. In light of the fact of his recent, unfortunate, dismissal—and despite the public derogation ceremony surrounding it orchestrated by President Adams, Coach Donnan’s willingness to stay on the job through the end of December spoke irrefutably and elegantly of this man’s character, professionalism and commitment to the team and university.
I recall a few days earlier stopping by Normal News to pick up the newspaper and the topic of the firing naturally came up. The guy at the store supported the action, noting that he liked the fact that President Adams was such a great supporter of UGA sports. In his view, Adams is making the hard decisions that are vital to the success of any sports franchise. He compared Adams to the owner of a professional sports franchise. Although we may dislike those high-profile owners who are continually in the public eye for their well-publicized hirings and firings, rehirings and refirings, these hard calls are oftentimes necessary, he believed, for the sake of the team’s greater glory and for the fans’ well-deserved satisfaction. Although owners pay others to make sports-related decisions, it is understandable—and admirable—when they step in should things go awry in order to set the team on the right course once again or, in a phrase oft-uttered when heads are made to roll, to take the organization “to the next level.”
Although I agreed with the clerk’s assessment that egomaniacal owners like George Steinbrenner make it hard sometimes to be a fan, I thought his use of Steinbrenner and the Yankees as a general case in point to be the most telling refutation one could possibly make of the specific practice of college presidents overruling their athletic directors in the area of personnel decisions. UGA is a university, not an entertainment conglomerate. We are dedicated not to profitable football seasons, but to the pursuit of knowledge, scientific inquiry, artistic innovation, scholarly discourse, and the development of the talents and intellects of our students. Lately, however, it seems as if we have indeed come to think of ourselves as a profit-making organization, a firm competing with others in an educational marketplace. The football team, more than any other component of the university, bears the brunt of making the sale. Like the characters in David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross, they are expected to “always be closing.” Even a season with eight victories cannot be successful if a loss to one or more of the traditional rivals is part of it. How could UGA claim to be moving to the next level when we lose continually to Florida?
All of this brings me to the central fact, the dominating issue, concerning not only this letter, but also the University of Georgia itself. I refer to the special importance within our university community’s culture accorded to sports, most especially football
All of us at the university—students, faculty, staff and administrators—must know this and must face the choice, then, of either participating in the culture of spectacles, entertainment, Greek exclusivity and regional parochialism or acting to change it. The culture runs deep in the bone of this place, and is oftentimes conflated in the minds of some with the idea of “Southernness.” Fraternities, football, and tailgating has come to represent the ideal of the Southern university, a unique signifier of life in the contemporary South which attests to our continued distinctiveness, our traditional way of life, and our essential conservatism. Coach Donnan’s real problem was his mistaken assumption that UGA wanted him to develop his players not only as athletes but as students and citizens. The next coach will not be as naive. Despite any pronouncement emanating from the president’s office concerning academic excellence or the spirit of community at UGA, he will know that his job here is to push the UGA product line, to always be closing, and above all to make the sale. We must, after all, get to that next level. Go Dawgs!

James J. Dowd is professor of sociology at UGA.
Forum Guidelines
To encourage discussion on issues affecting the university and higher education in general, the Forum section appears periodically in Columns. Faculty, staff, administrators and researchers associated with the university are invited to submit essays and respond to previous essays.
A committee appointed by University Council and Staff Council reviews submissions to determine which are of greatest interest to the university community.
Faculty members of the Forum review committee for 2000–2001 are Jonathan Evans, English, and J. Scott Shaw, physics and astronomy. A third faculty member will be appointed soon. The staff representative is Brenda Keen of the Institute of Government.
Opinions expressed on these pages do not necessarily reflect the views of the administration of the University of Georgia or the review committee.
Articles will be edited to conform with the Associated Press stylebook.
Guidelines for submissions
• Topics should be related to issues in higher education.
• Essays should have broad appeal in the university community.
• Essays should be no longer than 700 words.
• Send essays to Beth Roberts (columns@uga.edu; News Service, A-205 Stegeman Coliseum).
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