Dartmouth says it won't bargain with basketball players' union

[MichMan]

In a statement announcing its refusal to bargain a labor deal with the athletes, the school was adamant that it believes "athletes in the Ivy League are not employees."

Given Dartmouth's decades-long commitment to athletics as an extension of our academic mission, we believe the regional director has made an extraordinary mistake in finding these students are employees," the school said in its statement, which called the players "students whose educational program includes athletics."

"From a procedural standpoint, if the full NLRB refuses to overturn the regional director's decision, Dartmouth's only remaining option to challenge this legal error is to engage in a technical refusal to bargain, an unprecedented step in our long history of labor negotiations," the school said. "This will likely result in SEIU Local 560 filing an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB, which we would appeal. This is the only lever Dartmouth has to get this matter reviewed by a federal court."

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story?id=39761452&_slug_=dartmouth-says-bargain-basketball-players-union

[SarahD]

1. Then make college athletics amateur again.

No more millionaire coaches. No more cheating on academics and recruiting. No more big tournaments and bowl games.

[Mopar151]

2. Dartmouth is an "Ivy League" school.

No athletic scholarships. No bowl games. And, in the case of Dartmouth football, no hitting in practice! (An innovation of longtime Coach Buddy Teevens (RIP), in response to CPT in college athletics.)

[SarahD]

3. That makes it easy.

No paying the athletes. End of story.

[CTyankee]

4. You beat me to it! I live in New Haven and every fall we attend the Ivy League games at the Yale Bowl.

A performance by the Yale Precision Marching Band, which is a parody of Big 10 schools elaborate bands, is a halftime experience. Some may be drawn from Yale's elite graduate school of music; usually, they are not. These band members march erratically onto the field and form into bumbling formations. It is a lot of fun to watch but the videos are awful. Cole Porter, class of '13, wrote the fight song "Boola Boola, Eli Yale!" which is mindless stuff but still sung at Yale games. Half time presentations are not the precise and choreographed half time entertainment we get in Big Ten school football games.

At least Dartmouth retired their student in Algonquin Native American costume doing war dances and whooping on the field at half time. "Smartmouth" has improved ever since it finally went co-ed.