Letter to the editor:
The news of Ohio State women’s basketball coach Jim Foster’s firing in Wednesday’s Lantern was quite a shock. I don’t follow athletic entertainment closely, but what is clear is that after a record of 10 consecutive NCAA invitations for championship play, and a win-loss record of 279-82 (a .772 winning percentage), in the eyes of the athletic department and its director – who makes more than $1 million a year, and whose eyes are closely aligned with a central administration that distributes salaries at the highest levels in measures that faculty and staff find difficult to imagine – the coach’s record simply wasn’t good enough. And this in a field – college athletics – rife with shady dealings and associated embarrassments and penalties.
The firing raises the question of what is ‘good enough’ for OSU. I’ve never met coach Foster. This letter is only indirectly on his behalf. It is rather a remark on a culture of anxiety and insufficiency, wherein winning is everything. This may be news to some, but this emotion, this disposition has nothing to do with the confidence of eminent institutions. It is rather the mark of an insecurity. Best wishes to coach Foster. He is a competent professional operating at the highest level of his craft. That this is not enough for central administration certainly is a problem for him. It may be a larger problem for the institution.
Associate professor at Ohio State who wished to remain anonymous
