#11. Should universities finance students' sports activities equally as libraries?
The main responsibility of a university is to develop a student's academic ability. While physical health is an important prerequisite for mental health and academic achievement, sports should play a comparatively small role in college student's lives.
Since a student's main activity outside of the classroom is studying, occupying from four to eight hours of their day, a peaceful studying environment plays an important role in a student's academic development. College dorm rooms can have up to eight students sleeping in one small room and are not good environments for students to study in. To provide excellent studying environments for their students, universities must build large libraries designed to accommodate students as well as books. Since sports should occupy a much smaller part of the student's time, perhaps only an hour a day, sports facilities need not be as extensive or well-equipped as libraries.
In addition to the costs of building adequate library faculties, a university must also pay every year to keep its collection well organized and up-to-date.
The goal of every university library should be to have the most current books and materials its students need in order to study and do cutting edge research. The larger the student body, the more comprehensive a library's collection must be. A well-trained staff must also care for the materials and help the students.
Continuing costs for sports, on the other hand, are relatively low, requiring only a few part-time staff and maintenance routines. For the most part, students are happy to organize their own sporting events and exercise routines quite independently of the school.
Although a student's health is critical to their academic success, the investment that a school needs to make to ensure a physically fit student body is relatively small. Considering that the main mission of the school is to develop a student's mind and not their body, the school should put more of its resources into its libraries and not its sports activities.
11. 大学拨给图书馆和用于学生体育活动的经费是否应等同？
大学的主要责任是发展学生的学术能力。虽然身体健康是精神健康和学术成绩的重要先决条件，但是体育应该在大学生的生活中起到较小的作用。
既然学生的主要课外活动是学习，每天要占去他们4到8小时的时间，那么一个安静的学习环境对学生的学术发展就是十分重要的。大学学生宿舍的一个小房间最多可住满8个人，对学生来说不是一个良好的学习环境。为了给学生提供优秀的学习环境，大学必须修建能容纳学生和书籍的大型图书馆。既然体育在学生的时间中要占很少的部分，可能每天只会占1小时，体育设施就不必像图书馆那样用途广泛且设备精良。
除了建造适当的图书馆设施的费用，大学必须每年花钱使其馆藏安排有序且不断更新。每个大学图书馆的目的都应是拥有学生需要的最新书籍和材料，以供学习及进行前沿的研究之用。学生的总体数量越大，图书馆的藏书就需更加综合化。还需要有训练有素的馆员来管理资料和帮助学生。而在另一方面，在体育方面的后续花费是比较少的，只需一些兼职员工和日常维修工作。对于大部分学生来说，他们乐于组织自己的体育活动和日常锻炼而不依赖学校。
虽然学生的健康对于他们的学术成功极为重要，但是学校需要为确保学生身体健康的投资是相对较少的。鉴于学校的主要任务是发展学生的心智而不是体魄，学校应当将其资源更多地投入图书馆而不是体育活动中去。
- academic ［ˌækəˈdemik］ adj. 学术的，理论的
- up-to-date ［ˌuptəˈdeit］ adj. 跟上时代的，最新的
- prerequisite ［pri:ˈrekwizit］ n. 先决条件
- comprehensive ［ˌka:mpriˈhensiv］ adj. 综合的
- comparatively ［kəmˈpærətivli］ adv. 比较地，相对地
- staff ［stæf］ n. 全体职工
- accommodate ［əˈka:məˌdeit］ vt. 容纳
- maintenance ［ˈmeintənəns］ n. 维护
- adequate［ ˈædikwit］ adj.合适的，恰当的
- routine ［ru:ˈti:n］ n. 日常事务
- collection ［kəˈlekʃən］ n. 收藏，藏书