Written by John Mark Adkison
It was 30 years ago when Harding was a member of the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference, when there was the Harding University Bowling Team and when there was a bowling alley in the student center. In an editorial written by editor Sue Baj, the Bison described why the bowling team was disbanded so long ago.As we have all heard in one form or another, the Harding University Bowling Team has been disbanded for an indefinite period of time beginning with this academic year.Contrary to the beliefs of many that this was some arbitrary decision made for spite of the bowling team, the main reasons for this proposal are concrete and well justified.First of all, two years ago the NAIA made the decision to drop bowling as a sponsored sport due to the lack of interest among schools participating.Secondly, the following year the AIC made the same decision based on the fact that there were only three in-state teams participating within the conference. Although these decisions were made, Harding remained within the league for another year due to a commitment to the returning team members who were anticipating participation in the sport.Harding holds a policy for each sport it participates in which says that it will not sponsor any sport that is not in the AIC. This ruling was set forth to help establish and maintain a well- rounded sports program with competition as close to home as possible for the teams. Therefore, in compliance with this policy, Harding was forced to disband the bowling team.Another substantial reason for the suspension of the team is the fact that the majority of the returning members are now ineligible to participate in the sport.The conference rules state, which Harding adheres to for all sports, that any team member who competes ina sport for money is no longer eligible to compete on the college level in that particular sport.Therefore,the bowling team this year would have consisted of numerous inexperienced members who would have had to travel out of state for each tournament which was frowned upon by the athletic committee. The expenses incurred with the excessive traveling for a non-conference sponsored sport were not feasible for Harding.The team members may once again, like two or three years ago, in the tournament in Las Vegas, propose to pay the expenses on their own, but this still would not be a school approved function.Like so many other policies set forth by the administrators throughout the year here at Harding, the decisions were made after much deliberation about the best interest of the students as well as the school therefore we should respect and accept them with grace.The assortment of stories that travel about this campus dealing with situations such as the suspension of the bowling team could and should be alleviated by a little responsibility on our parts as interested students to seek the truth behind the decisions as they are handed down.This can only be done by going to the source of the news and not listening to misconstrued ideas thrust forward by angry people in an effort to relieve some unwanted frustrations.
