SIU Will Fold on New Policy

Well my dear alma mater, is trying to do the right thing. I just don’t think they have the guts to follow through.

There’s new language in the SIU-Carbondale Athletic Code of Conducts which demands athletes in uniform “remain neutral on any issue political in nature.” (i.e. Don’t be embarrassing the administrators by taking a knee during the national anthem). It hurts fundraising.

This all looks like a change of course. After a number of cheerleaders took knees last year, the chancellor, Carlo Montemagno, seemed to say that was OK. Students have rights too, he opined. I can’t imagine that was positively received in Little Egypt.

There has always been a divide between the academics that populate SIU and the farmers who surround it. Shake in a liberal amount of screwball Democratic politics and you have the recipe of dramatic decline. 

SIU is in serious decline.

So now, SIU is willing to take a stand. But I predict it’s for show….there a number of civil liberty groups fighting to get to the front of the line to represent the first misguided little 18-year-old cheerleader who thinks she is striking a blow against racism and police brutality.

In the shadows, there’s the ACLU, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and the National Coalition Against Censorship. They are prepared to pounce on SIU should it actually use the new policy to discipline or dismiss an athlete or cheerleader taking a knee this season.

What would happen next?

SIU will fold like a cheap suit.