Just Do It!

That is the slogan for Nike, the company that paid millions of dollars to St. John's University in exchange for the school forcing all athletes to wear clothing with the Nike symbol. At the time of this contract, a student sued the school claiming Nike's labor practices violated the teaching of the Catholic Church and that he was forbidden to write an editorial in a school newspaper about this . (The lawsuit was dismissed). I wish the president of St. John's, Rev. Donald J. Harrington, would follow Nike's slogan and just do what he said he would: get rid of the men's basketball program altogether. He was quoted as saying that if the mess surrounding the team could not be fixed, then he would just do it. The overemphasis on sports, especially mens' basketball, combined with the underemphasis on the Catholic identity of the school, has resulted in a university that is not worth supporting. As a graduate of St. John's I hope the school could do away with the expensive basketball program and concentrate on the two things I always felt was needed most of all:

--strong academics

--strong Catholic culture


On the other hand, since the school is barely Catholic, I don't care too much what does on there. I will continue to support real Catholic colleges and universities such as Franciscan University, Christendom, Magadelen, Thomas Aquinas, and the new Ave Maria. Incidents such as the one involving the St. John's basketball players (and the lacrosse players when I was a student) just prove how off track St. John's and other so called Catholic universities are.