The firs workshop on “The Role of Sports in the Italian University System” was held in the Department of Sociology and Social Research on 12 and 13 March 2015.
The representatives of about 20 universities met in Trento, to debate on the interconnection between sports and university. The President of EAS (European Athlete as Student Network) Laura Capranica participated in the works.
The workshop aimed at drafting a strategic plan, after two days of work, listing the objectives to achieve in the next years, regarding the relation between university and sports, to be submitted to the national and international relevant bodies, to promote a new and deeper connection between sports and university.
The workshop was organised by the University of Trento, in cooperation with CRUI, the Conference of the Rectors of the Italian Universities. The speech on “The Value of Sports for the Development of the Italian University System” was given by Stefano Paleari, who stated: “Sports can be a source of inspiration and an educational tool for the universities. It broadens our horizons, cultivates our personal talents, and teaches us how to act in extreme situations and how to transform our limits in opportunities, as it was proven by some famous athletes, such as Alex Zanardi, Erik Weihenmayer e Bethany Hamilton, who have been successful despite their physical handicaps. Sports foster the development of leadership and it boosts the capacity to work in team. Academic people share a lot with sportsmen: they are used to travel, to dialogue and compare themselves with others, and they belong to peaceful and tolerant communities, who share similar social values based on coexistence and shared responsibility. Sports are played on the basis of shared rules, which prize merit. The results and the competition stimulate participants to do their best. Sports teach to accept rules and results, overcoming defeats”.
“Sports is also the precious driving engine of research and enhancement, innovation and development, at industrial and economic level, because they provide inputs which may lead to the creation of new materials, tools and equipment”.
Paleari mentioned the recent start of the project “Camminare insieme - Walking together”, in cooperation with CRUI and the Italian University Sports Centre (CUSI), aimed at fostering university sports as a tool favouring health and wellness, inclusion and integration, education and culture, innovation and research. The project is based on the idea of awarding prizes to students-athletes who achieve good results; the inclusion “lifestyle” in the university ranking criteria; the possibility to obtain “new” and “green” industrial parameters from sports and research activity”.
Paolo Bouquet – Rector’s Delegate for Sports, underlined that “Sports is a very powerful tool to foster identity and inclusion, is a source of inspiration for ambitious research projects in all sectors, it paves the way to partnerships with the market and the development of innovative enterprises. And let us not forget the potential of the relations with the high-level sports sector, which can foster new R&D projects, provide new internal and external communication and promotional tools. It is high time for the Italian university to stop considering sports as a kind of (sometime unwelcome) guest, in fact to understand that it may become a significant resource for the development of fundamental features of the University mission, if it is considered from an overall viewpoint. We are meeting here today to accelerate this awareness raising plan, so that Italy can better approach the European policies in this field and with regard to the international excellence university systems, where sports at university has been considered for long as a fundamental resource and not as entertainment or hobby only. The organisation of the first Italian workshop on university sports here in Trento is a great result for our University.
In 2009 we started an experimental plan which was saluted with great interest and which may become a successful example and good starting point for our debate. The projects in this field had a positive and measurable impact on many university parameters and may create interesting opportunities for cross-sector research and for the transfer of knowledge, through spin-offs, industrial projects and agreements with sports federations”.
Giovanni Ippolito, CUSI’s President delivered a speech opening the session of the speeches delivered by the various Rector’s Delegates. The works continued on 13 March. The participants also visited the sports facilities of the Trento UNI.Sport system: Centro SanbàPolis (multisport), Centro Mattarello (multisport) and Sailing Centre.