Braine's Remarks to the Faculty Senate
Spectrum Volume 19 Issue 22 - February 28, 1997
Athletic Director Dave Braine spoke to members of the Faculty Senate last week regarding the athletic report detailed in this week's front-page story. Here are some of his remarks from that meeting:
Regarding off-field problems with members of the football team, Braine said, "It has been embarrassing. This past year should have been one of the best of my nine years at Virginia Tech. Obviously, we've had some problems. In mid-December, the president came to me, and said to put together a group to look at these problems." Braine was chairman of the committee created to formulate a policy to deal with problem athletes.
"If we have made a mistake, we have been too lenient with our athletes. But we do have a lot of good things going on in the Athletic Department. We have a number of educational programs, and we have a number of athletes with high grades, including some football and basketball players. We don't bring anyone into the program here who we think won't be able to graduate."
While Braine could not give details of the report at that time, he did assure senators that "we're going to do what's right, and you need to know that."