Hi there,
  Our system out here is moving as fast as typical monday morning
  traffic... I received a few responses to the message on Kariya.
  First of all, the original letter was submitted as a topic for
  conversation. Although the letter focused on the Univ. of Maine,
  I acknowledge this problem as being universal. All div I schools
  have this problem.
 
  One response:
>
>  Comparing Kariya to the eligibility problems is ridiculous.  Everyone
>   at Maine would like him to stay (he is an honor student and a fine
>   gentleman), but those that know Paul, know he will complete his
>   degree, but probably not in 4 years.
 
 I dont think anyone at Maine would want Kariya to leave. My original
 point was not to compare the two situations.
 Why the player attends a University is the real question. Sure a
 player may go with hopes of obtaining a multi-mil NHL contract,
 there are no guarantees. What happens if they are injured and
 cannot play in the NHL. Do they fall back on the education or not?
 I can only hope Paul completes his degree, even though he will most
 likely never need it.
 
>   The current conjecture is that Kariya will be offered a multi-year
>   multi-million dollar contract after the Olympics.  What would you do
>   in that situation?  That he seems to truely to not have made up his
>   mind, is a credit to his intent to complete his degree.
 
 I could win megabucks today or tomorrow. Would I stop my pursuit of
 a college education.... Hard question. But really.... what are the chances
 that he wont be offered a multi-year multi-mill contract in two years?
 
>   When "athletic" scholarships were introduced, it became a bit of both.
>
>   I do not mean that athletes are treated differently wrt admissions or
>   academics, just that given their talents and goals, we can expect a
>   number of them to be preparing to play in the NHL.
 
 True, but unfortunate.
 
 
Heres another response:
 
>College is to make people more competitive for jobs.
>If someone receives a sufficient job before the degree is completed, then the
>mission is fulfilled. Most of us are not that lucky.
 
 
 I have been pursuing a Ph.D. in engineering for a long time (too long).
 I could have made a fair amount of money in that time. My mission
 is not to obtain a sufficient job through education. I could have done
 that a long time ago. People attend Univ. for different reasons. Its
 unfortunate that many feel the need to associate schooling with job training.
 Todays economy seems to dictate this idealology. Everyone wants two kids,
 a dog and a house. Granted, there is nothing wrong with that. Lets
 just hope you can balance that big checking account. You dont
 need advanced Calculus for that.
 
 Its getting awful hot here in Boston after I sent that first message.
 Maybe thats why our machine is running so slow. Did anyone have a good
 weekend out there... I was only trying to see how others felt, I guess
 I found out.
                                        Happy holidays,
                                        In the quest for knowledge (damn)...
                                        Greg Gdowski
 
GO BU....