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I submit that quality and success in academics and athletics are not only compatible but are mutually reinforcing, and that success in one can strengthen the other. I base my opinion on my observations as a professor, dean, and vice president at the University of Minnesota for more than 30 years, as well as the Us faculty athletic representative to the NCAA, WCHA, and Big Ten.

We are all aware of universities that have consistently demonstrated success in both academic quality and athletic competition. The University of Michigan and Stanford immediately come to mind. But there are many others, and these universities represent standards of excellence to which other universities should aspire.

As faculty athletic representative, I attended several Rose Bowl tournaments. Each year, I observed the extraordinary fund-raising success of the schools competing in that game. Alumni, exhilarated by their schools football success, responded generously to their presidents fund-raising appeals on behalf of the academic programs at those institutions. That scenario is repeated with other national athletic championships.

In addition to private fund-raising success, athletic success may even have a positive effect on legislative support of public universities. The president of one public university that is a perennial football power told me that the legislature of his state was more favorably inclined toward the entire school, including the academic programs, in those years when it was contending as a national champion.

And schools that have experienced athletic success are able to compete more successfully for top students. For example, when George Mason University, a relatively new school with a reputation as a commuter school, advanced this year to the NCAA Final Four, the university's dean of admissions was quoted in a national news story predicting a surge in applications as a result of the Final Four appearance and that the basketball team would give the school the chance like never before to show the rest of the world its progress as an institution of higher education. He went on to say, There is no doubt that no amount of marketing or recruitment or success gives us a chance to tell our story to so many people like the Final Four.

And what about the reverse? How does academic success reinforce athletic success? I believe quality academic programs of a university are a major recruiting advantage to attract the most skilled student athletes to the school. The most sought-after student athletes have the option of attending a university where they could compete athletically at the highest levels and also receive the best education for success in life after competition.

The University of Minnesota is one of the great public universities in this country. Your alumni association strongly supports the plans of University President Bob Bruininks to further strengthen the U and to make it one of the top three public research universities in the world. And I am proud of the athletic success enjoyed by so many of the men's and women's teams at the University. I think they go hand in hand.