I commend student leaders Zachary Cohen, Steven Hershkowitz and Kaiyi Xie for their compelling arguments opposing spending public and university funds to renovate Cole Field House ("Athletics over academics?" Dec. 3). They obviously have their priorities in the right place. They demonstrate that you can have pride in your alma mater without succumbing to dubious appeals to support big-time athletics.
It appears that their elders in university administration are less able to resist the hold of big-time college sports and avoid plunging their institution deeper in the pit of the athletics arms race. I hope that the members of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents see the compelling logic of the student leaders' arguments. More broadly, I also hope university leaders in Maryland and elsewhere begin trying to learn from these kinds of young leaders whose values place students and the academic mission ahead of the narrow interests of big-time college sports and their boosters.
Howard Nixon, Catonsville
The writer is author of the 2014 book, "The Athletic Trap: How College Sports Corrupted the Academy," published by Johns Hopkins University Press.