8A - Thursday, November 12, 2009
The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com
Coleman: Michigan has stayed
competitive with coaches' pay
From Page 1A
established guidelines.
"We have a compensation phi-
losophy at the University that
actually goes across the institu-
tion that we want to be competi-
tive in our salaries," she said.
"We often try and be in the
upper quartile," she contin-
ued, "because we know that in
that arena, you want to get the
best people to your institution,
whether it's the dean, or a vice
president, or a football coach,
then you're going to have to pay
what the market looks like."
With regards to Rodriguez's
salary, Coleman said she thought
it was reasonable.
"I think (Athletic Director Bill
Martin has) done an extremely
good job of being rational, being
reasonable, looking at the mar-
ket - we're not by any means the
highest, but we're competitive,"
she said.
Coleman said that while many
athletic departments across the
country are seeing increasing
costs, the University of Michi-
gan's Athletic Department has
posted surpluses over the last
several years and does not receive
money from the academic side of
University.
"The Michigan Athletic
Department is in an enviable
position," Coleman said. "There
are only a handful of programs in
the country that are completely
self-supporting in athletics."
"I feel really comfortable about
it," Coleman added about the
overall state of athletic adminis-
tration at the University.
USA Today's study followed
another by the Knight Commis-
sion, which looked at Division IA
presidents' feelings about athlet-
ic department budgets.
Most presidents said that while
they thought something needed
to be done about spending on ath-
letics at their university, a major-
ity of them said that they did not
feel like they were in a position to
create that change.
In an interview last month,
Coleman stressed that she was
confident in her control over the
University's Athletic Depart-
ment, citing a good working
relationship with Athletic
Director Bill Martin and effec-
tive procedures in place that
give Coleman and the Board of
Regents oversight over the Ath-
letic Department.
- Daily News Editor Kyle
Swanson contributed to this report.
APPLICATION
From Page 1A
Jamett said.
"But now, if I'm using the Com-
mon Application, if I have it filled
out and as long as my parents have
the money putoutforthe application
fee then there is really no downside
to me hittingsend'to the University
of Michigan in addition to all those
other schools," she added.
Though the University will now
share an application with many
other schools, Spencer said that
officials here could still design a
supplemental application that will
be a part of the Common Applica-
tion and include those things that
are unique to the University.
In fact, SpencersaidtheUniversi-
ty's current application includes fea-
turesofthe CommonApplication.
In an interview yesterday,
University President Mary Sue
Coleman said she supported the
transition to the new applica-
tion process after she found out it
would still allow admissions offi-
cers to conduct a holisticreview of
potential students.
"When I realized that we could
in fact customize the common
application for what we needed
and that we weren't going to lose
our ability to still do the holistic
review, for me it became a matter
of why wouldn't we want to make
it easier for students to apply- to
Michigan?" Coleman said.
"I wouldn't want to give that up
at all because I think that has been
a huge strength of our admissions
process that we are much more
than just about your grades and
test scores," Coleman said. "We
wantto get a sense of what you will
bring to the university and also the
ways that we think we can enrich
a student's experience."
Patrick O'Connor, director of
college counseling at the Roeper
School in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.,
said that this switch would allow
his students to focus on important
parts of their application and still be
able to focus ontheir schoolwork.
"I can say beyond a shadow of
doubt, that if Michigan decides
to make this switch, this is going
to be a tremendous benefit to my
students and I think all students
who apply to six to eight colleges,"
O'Connor said. "It's going to be
less paperwork, it's going to give
them a chance to focus on the
quality of their essays and actually
give them a chance to devote more
time to their senior year classes."
While the application will make
it easier for students to apply, area
counselors didn't believe that it
would increase the number of their
students' applications to Michigan.
"So many of our students apply
to the University of Michigan,"
Jamett said. "And for those stu-
dents, they would apply to the
University of Michigan whether
Michigan had its own application,
whether Michiganwaslisted in the
Common Application, or if Michi-
gan made its application more
complex, they would still be apply-
ing to the University of Michigan.
It's a bigdrawfor our kids."
Larry Fisher, director of guid-
ance at East Grand Rapids High
School, pointed out that the
switch to the Common Applica-
tion could help area college coun-
selors "do more with less" because
the time spent by counselors writ-
ing recommendations for multiple
schools could be cut in half.
Spencer said that with the econ-
omy the way that it is, any way to
get more information out to stu-
dents who are interested in apply-
ing is important.
"If the Common Application can
broaden our base and broaden our
application reach in order for us to
get students interested in the Uni-
versity of Michigan and keep our
application numbers to the point
where we can still enroll great stu-
dents,"Spencersaid,"thenIthinkits
probably the best way forus aswe go
into some of these next few years of
uncertainty with the economy."
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