At least 34 faculty members at Binghamton University have called for a vote to determine if BU should withdraw from Division I athletics; it’s nice to see the faculty make a move, but too often the extreme solution isn’t a solution at all. This is no exception.

Though there are aspects to the petition that make a lot of sense, we disagree with the idea that kicking BU out of D-I would be the best fix.

Although the basketball team has made headlines for breaking all the rules, there are plenty of teams who not only follow the rules, but excel within their bounds. The GPA of student-athletes in fall 2009 was an average of 3.07 — the highest it’s been since BU went Division I.

The Bearcats women’s tennis program had a combined 3.47 GPA during the spring 2009 semester, and the men’s soccer team came out first among 200 D-I schools in the 2007-08 academic year, beating schools like Brown and Dartmouth.

The men’s cross country team was crowned America East Conference champions this year, and our volleyball team won the AE championship.

The problem is obviously not D-I, or the majority of BU teams; it’s the administration. Taking the right to compete in D-I away from all these teams would punish all the wrong people, and send entirely the wrong message.

That being said, the petition makes a good point about increased faculty (and hopefully student) involvement in the decision-making process. President Lois DeFleur has conclusively proved that the responsibility for D-I can’t rest in one office, and the petition makes that point accurately. Now that DeFleur is leaving and the rest of us remain, it’s a good idea to institute new guidelines for a more democratic and accountable process.

Having a vote on the D-I issue at the next Faculty Senate meeting would be a good beginning — if nothing else, it could establish a starting point for negotiations. From there, the faculty could be given the forum they requested to air out their grievances about academic problems and find solutions. A system of transparency and communication needs to be set up, and the only way to do that is with the cooperation of all sides.

If the established guidelines for D-I and academics are actually followed and enforced, like they are in the vast majority of our programs, then D-I will be a positive thing for BU.

We understand that the faculty is concerned with an overemphasis on athletics. And we understand that increased faculty involvement in decision-making is a good thing. But we don’t understand why scrapping our entire athletic program for the mistakes of the few is the best the solution for us all.