Foreign swimmers training in the U.S.

Originally posted by poolmonkey Can you name any examples of foreign companies donating money to a university? Just curious about the details surrounding these types of transactions. Maybe it's my paranoia, but I'm always skeptical of donations - from any company wherever they are based. A hidden agenda of some sorts is sometimes involved. Not too many companies do the right thing just for the sake of doing the right thing. here's one: TAN Hall UC Berkeley just one example. Tan Kah Kee is a Taiwanese industrialist who made the main donation for this new building at CAL for the Chemical Engineering Dept. People like to see their names on buildings. I'm sure there are kickbacks!

This is good motivation for our athletes. I'm sure it will be posted in locker rooms for the next few years. I'm a little suspicious about "Chinese medical advances." I recall some of their advances at previous Olympics and the way drug testing curtailed those advances. To be honest, the Russians and Chinese have never agreed on anything so their alleged unity could turn to squabbling and nothing will come of this.

Many foreign corps provide matching donations to their emps. I know of at least 4 or 5 gigantic corps with home offices out of the country that do this.

After hundreds of posts on this, I felt the need to pipe in for what it's worth. The simple solution is that if a university athletic program wants foreign athletes, fine. Pay for their education by using alumni money, if the past students/athletes want their funds used to promote the athletic programs with foreign athletes, private money, not public NCAA Title 9 limited funds should be used which would deny American athletes the privelege of attending their Universities that have been supported by their families tax dollars as long as they have been alive. These arguments about the not so fortunate foreign athlete does not sit with me. Most (not all) of them are supported by their government to live and train wherever they see fit. So if no alumni money available, then let their governments pay for them to attend our schools so our American athletes are not denied the opportunity to train, get a degree and develop into not only better swimmers (or whatever sport) but also degreed well rounded contributors to society. As far as this debate going into minimum wage discussions, if you understood the basic issues of supply and demand, you would understand why the minimum wage hasn't and never has worked. Whenever you put a floor or ceiling on the supply demand curve, you destroy the basic economic model. Not a political statement, just economics 101.

Originally posted by geochuck No waiting list in the USA but no one can afford an operation. If everyone who needed an operation were counted the lineups would be very long. I can see my doctor any time I want and don't pay. Our hospital is a regional medical center serving several counties; patients are admitted and treated regardless of their financial status. Some months a sizable (30%) percentage of our practice's work is not reimbursed (ie we don't get paid for it). Some patients agree to pay $20/month, others never pay at all and their bill is written off as bad debt. These are patients who have undergone lifesaving procedures (angioplasty, bypass surgery, etc.) and received state of the art care. Yes, the system is flawed, but the indigent do receive care--just take a look at our books sometime.

Just need a clarification; I'm not taking sides (being a Canadian, it comes naturally). Those who would limit (or abolish) athletic scholarships for non-US citizens- would they support the same limitations on academic scholarships? I know this discussion centers on the swimming ramifications but I would like to hear from every one (the usual suspects) their take on that aspect.

Geez Geek, I'm seeing a whole side of you that I never suspected existed during the great coffee debate of '04. Rock on dude! carl

It's not a question of granting foreign athletes admission to a public university, it's a question of whether they should receive an athletic scholarship, of which there are a limited number. I wonder how many academic scholarships are awarded to foreign students by public (state) universities.

"Maryyyyyyyy, and others, I certainly agree that foreign students bring a great diversity and promote greater understanding of different cultures and races on college and university campuses. I even picked an apartment in Athens because the children who lived there went to an elementary school where there was a very high enrollment of the children of foreign students. I wanted my daughter to have the experience of knowing children from other countries. But, campus diversity isn't the question really. The question is: are American institutes of higher education denying our students scholarships because they give them to foreign students? If so, is this right? In my opinion, campus diversity isn't worth the cost of an athletic scholarship going to a foreign student.

Originally posted by laineybug Fortunately some institutions universally recognized as excellent (Yale, Harvard, your own UGA, Duke, Stanford, etc, etc, etc) long ago realized that diversity of student body actually promoted the concept of higher education.