With the aftermath of the firing of former men’s basketball coach Bobby Knight still lingering four months later, Indiana University President Myles Brand addressed an audience of journalists and students about the dangerous effects college athletics are having on academics.

Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Brand voiced concern about schools that are losing their academic identity due to more visible and more profitable athletic programs. According to the president, major universities such as Indiana are increasingly being seen as a sports program with an institution of higher learning tacked on, rather than the other way around.

“University presidents believe their real job is to preserve and create environments where new knowledge can be discovered, knowledge that makes life richer, more rewarding, and more livable,” Brand said. “But often, the public at large sees the university differently. For them, the most visible and vital role played by institutions such as IU is as a sponsor of athletic teams.”

Brand said that the Knight firing helped to shed light on this divide.

In December, the university received a $105 donation-the largest private gift in school history-in order to fund the Indiana Genomics Initiative, which will aid in the quest to map out the human genome and cure diseases as Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

The public’s response to this announcement, however, was nowhere near as impressive as its reaction to Knight’s firing, Brand said. Coverage of the Brand’s “zero tolerance” announcement in May garnered more than 200 reporters, while the IGI announcement, held in the same room, attracted six.

“Our announcement of this remarkable grant received good notice locally, but it was treated as a one-day story,” he said.

“Conversely, the Bob Knight saga played out over weeks and months. While I received thousands and thousands of e-mails expressing various points of view on the Knight matter, the announcement of the genomics project drew only a handful of e-mails and letters, despite the fact that the genomics project will have dramatically greater significance in people’s lives.”

Brand said he hopes to realign the university’s athletic department in order to reflect his vision of class-time first, game-time second. Additionally, he wants to sell other schools as well as the NCAA on the importance of balancing academic and athletic prowess.

Finally, Brand said that he supports programs, such as the National Developmental Basketball League, that integrate academic achievement with athletic achievement.

The president expressed further concern about what he called an “arms race” among schools to build bigger venues and have better resources, a battle than can sometimes leave wounds in some schools’ academic budgets. He added that the media’s saturated coverage of such battles only serves to provoke the issue.

“If continued, this will lead to a crisis situation,” he said.