Although I like chess I have mixed feelings about this story. Admissions and scholarships already depend too much on non-academic factors IMO.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local...c-cf0c-11e3-a6b1-45c4dffb85a6_story.htmlIs Webster University spending $1 million to dominate college chess and crush UMBC?
By Michael S. Rosenwald
Washington Post
April 28, 2014
The arms race in collegiate chess — a cutthroat world once dominated by the University of Maryland Baltimore County — is generating new scrutiny following revelations that a high-powered coach at Texas Tech University requested more than $1 million in funding, including a $250,000 salary.
Texas Tech declined, and the coach, Susan Polgar, left the school and took her entire team of grandmasters to Webster University in St. Louis, where the chess world thinks at least some of her wishes were met. Webster has since won two straight Final Four chess titles amid a growing debate about the spending — a discussion that sounds a lot like those surrounding big-time college athletic programs.
“Are we just starting another version of what’s happened in the football or basketball arena?” asked Richard Vedder, an Ohio University professor and director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. “I think we are even though the stakes are smaller.”
The account of Polgar’s requests surfaced last week in a series of stories in the Journal, Webster’s student newspaper, which filed public records requests with Texas Tech and other top chess programs for documents detailing chess spending.
Documents and e-mails revealed that Polgar, a four-time women’s world champion who makes her squad perform physical workouts to improve stamina, had requested the $250,000 in salary for her and $150,000 for her husband, Paul Truong (also a coach), funds for up to 34 full and partial scholarships, and $25,000 bonuses for tournament wins.
In an interview, Polgar said the requests to Texas Tech reflected an offer from one of multiple schools that tried to recruit her. She declined to identify the school but said it wasn’t Webster, adding that she and her husband were making “substantially less” than the offer presented to Texas Tech.
Webster says it spends $635,000 a year on chess, including salaries and expenses. That figure does not include full and partial scholarship totals for the program’s 15 players. Webster’s tuition is $24,500 a year.
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