Times Union - "UAlbany suspends athletic activities over party attendance concerns"

[alumni '92']

https://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/UAlbany-benches-athletic-related-activities-over-15526096.php?utm_campaign=socialflow&cmpid=fbsocialflow&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=facebook.com#photo-15648772

Edited August 31, 2020 by alumni '92'

[Eli]

Stupid. So stupid. Man, I was never this dumb as a college aged adult. 

[dslyank]

IMHO Benson once again appears to be bungling. I'll give him a couple of days; as the situation is new and in flux. But IMHO he should absolutely identify the players and teams involved. Punish those responsible; NOT everyone. If privacy concern's are an issue, OK, don't identify the particular player/players; but give them the punishment NOT the whole athletic community!

Not to get too political, but this is really what is matter with society today:  we punish everyone for the actions of the few.  Not every police officer is BAD/STUPID/UN-TRAINED whatever; Not every black is a gang banger druggie, Not everyone with a gun is a vigilante; Not everyone with a protest sign is a radical {in fact most are just trying to do their civic duty and expose injustice}; and Not every politician is out just for themselves {could be very wrong on this one.}

SORRY about the RANT. Hope I did not offend anyone. 

[cwdickens]

10 hours ago, Eli said:

Stupid. So stupid. Man, I was never this dumb as a college aged adult. 

Eli,  neither you or I faced what these students face today.  Further, I do not think the students in general, student-athletes,  off campus students,  in particular, ever thought of the consequences.  The consequences were swift, certain and severe.  I imagine the "downtown" and off-campus housing will receive much more attention this week by University Police, Albany City Police and Albany County Department of Health.  Sadly, owners of business in Clifton Park, that I frequent, stated that number of people attempting to enter their businesses without face masks increase significantly towards the end of the week.  Students are just reflecting a segment of our population who do not care.

This weekend just underscores why fall sports were cancelled.

Edited August 31, 2020 by cwdickens
clarification

[cwdickens]

5 minutes ago, dslyank said:

IMHO Benson once again appears to be bungling. I'll give him a couple of days; as the situation is new and in flux. But IMHO he should absolutely identify the players and teams involved. Punish those responsible; NOT everyone. If privacy concern's are an issue, OK, don't identify the particular player/players; but give them the punishment NOT the whole athletic community!

Not to get too political, but this is really what is matter with society today:  we punish everyone for the actions of the few.  Not every police officer is BAD/STUPID/UN-TRAINED whatever; Not every black is a gang banger druggie, Not everyone with a gun is a vigilante; Not everyone with a protest sign is a radical {in fact most are just trying to do their civic duty and expose injustice}; and Not every politician is out just for themselves {could be very wrong on this one.}

SORRY about the RANT. Hope I did not offend anyone. 

In short, the response by SUNY to close SUNY-Oneonta for two weeks and the actions taken by University at Albany were both a political and health statement.  I can only image how angered the Governor is about what happen.  Please remember this is not an Albany problem ... this is Poughkeepsie problem (Marist), Plattsburgh problem, Syracuse problem, Oneonta problem...lastly a New York State problem

[Eli]

2 hours ago, cwdickens said:

Eli,  neither you or I faced what these students face today.  Further, I do not think the students in general, student-athletes,  off campus students,  in particular, ever thought of the consequences.  The consequences were swift, certain and severe.  I imagine the "downtown" and off-campus housing will receive much more attention this week by University Police, Albany City Police and Albany County Department of Health.  Sadly, owners of business in Clifton Park, that I frequent, stated that number of people attempting to enter their businesses without face masks increase significantly towards the end of the week.  Students are just reflecting a segment of our population who do not care.

This weekend just underscores why fall sports were cancelled.

There is a pandemic. There is no excuse for them to not care and 'they are facing something we didn't face' is just a cop out. They should now pay the consequences which should be swift and severe. It's not like we're in the first week of this thing...we are half a year into this. EVERYONE knows to socially distance. If you don't care, pay the consequences.

 

[cwdickens]

1 hour ago, Eli said:

There is a pandemic. There is no excuse for them to not care and 'they are facing something we didn't face' is just a cop out. They should now pay the consequences which should be swift and severe. It's not like we're in the first week of this thing...we are half a year into this. EVERYONE knows to socially distance. If you don't care, pay the consequences.

 

Eli,

We agree on this.

[jimbo]

1 hour ago, cwdickens said:

Eli,

We agree on this.

I agree. My thought is that perhaps hammering everyone for a period of time does two things. It reinforces the seriousness of the issue. And it likely makes self enforcement  and peer pressure more effective. There’s always gonna be idiots though. They’ll break the rules because they either don’t think it applies to them or they’ve done it before without consequence. My senior year of HS, a bunch of football players had a “beer party” as we called it back then. They somehow got caught and everyone was kicked off the team for the remaining games. They included many good players and the season tanked. Kids know the rules. Kids still do stupid stuff. 

[McFan]

So a bunch of healthy kids got together with a bunch of other healthy kids (while clearly breaking the rules) and we’re shutting it down for everybody and sending in SWAT teams (see Oneonta)?  Seems appropriate.

[dslyank]

So Benson has had almost a week to find out if Athletes and if so which were partying "illegally" i.e. un-responsibly. Any word when teams {at least those teams & players who are being responsible---IMHO that is MOST kids}, can begin practicing???

Edited September 4, 2020 by dslyank

[Oldtimer]

Mass punishment never works i.e. fair.  Find students who violated, punish them, but not the team(s)!

Administrators are notorious for not knowing how to discipline rule breaking athletes.

[cwdickens]

I agree however; college administrators are shooting first and asking questions later.

[Eli]

On 9/5/2020 at 7:31 PM, Oldtimer said:

Mass punishment never works i.e. fair.  Find students who violated, punish them, but not the team(s)!

Administrators are notorious for not knowing how to discipline rule breaking athletes.

In this case I think it is appropriate. Clearly it doesn't seem like students are policing EACH OTHER, so how do you ensure that happens? When you affect the whole student body and innocent kids have to start paying for the misbehavior of the morons, then more of the innocent kids will start to hold their fellow students accountable in order to avoid a repeat or another set of consequences.

[cwdickens]

According to separate Instagram posts: Football and Men's Basketball resume practices today.....