UAB faculty mulls action against president who is dropping football

THE UAB Faculty Senate is considering taking a no-confidence vote on president Ray Watts in the wake of his decision to drop football.

Faculty Senate chair Chad Epps said members voted by two-thirds majority while in executive session yesterday to submit two possible resolutions to faculty members and will reconvene in January after receiving feedback. Epps said the first resolution would "support athletics and require a transparent reassessment of all athletics." The second alternative would be a no-confidence vote in Watts.

"There's a lot of concern that the president didn't involve other constituents in the decision, and we want to make sure we don't do the same thing," Epps said.

Epps said the faculty group also considered resolutions calling for reprimand and censure. He said the discussion stemmed from "a series of events," not just the recent decision to cut sports.

Watts announced on Dec. 2 that he was eliminating football, bowling and rifle in a move he said would save the university millions. The Blazers had just completed a 6-6 season that was the program's best in 10 years.

In other college news:

* University of Hawaii athletic director Ben Jay has resigned.

* A South Korean governor has rejected an International Olympic Committee proposal to move the bobsled and luge events for the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang to another country to save money. Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon said relocating the events to other destinations wouldn't help save costs because Pyeongchang has already begun building its venue.

* Athletes from Kosovo will be able to compete at the 2016 Summer Games after being granted full recognition by the IOC. Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, becomes the 205th national Olympic committee recognized by the IOC.

* University of the Sciences senior forward Garret Kerr was named the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Player of the Week for his performance during the Devils' two games last week, including an upset victory over Drexel in which he made the game-winning three. It is Kerr's second consecutive player of the week honor.