5 Eagles’ athletes lose their spot on team for being five minutes late

They soared on wings of eagles but time brought them crashing down to earth – five minutes of time, that is. Word spread quickly today that seven of ten members of the 2013 ATLIB champion Galen Eagles basketball team lost their academic scholarships because they were five minutes late to a meeting set up at the University to sign their scholarship contracts. Now that seems harsh, and maybe if that report was true, it would be. But it’s not true. Today News Five contacted the President of Galen University Dr. Louis Zabaneh, and he told us that the students arrived late to a very important meeting and they were penalized, but not with the loss of their academic scholarships.

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, President, Galen University

Louis Zabaneh

“We organized this morning a signing of contracts with our student athletes in the basketball program. It was an event for which we were all excited because we would be offering these students very valuable opportunities to attend Galen University. The focus of the scholarships, of the event, was to explain to the students the requirements of receiving these scholarships. And so we had invited them to come along with a parent or guardian. It was set for eleven o’clock and I walked into the room at eleven o’clock and to my dismay, there were only three students there. After waiting for about five minutes, I decided that this event was so important that it meant that students were obviously not taking it very seriously. One student had sent in an email for which the parent had informed us that they couldn’t come for good reason. Another one had sent in a text that they were driving in from Orange Walk and would be a little late so we understood that. But the other students, who had in previous occasions at important events had been coming in late, were following that same trend. So I decided that it was time to make a very important statement about timing. And we asked those students to step aside from the team and we will be offering those spots to other students who are very serious about these opportunities. They would still be able to retain their academic scholarships, which meant that our commitment to the number one priority which is for them to get their degrees remains. And I informed the parents, thereafter I met with them around twelve o’clock for those who were waiting; that we would stick to that commitment because that is the main commitment, for these students to get an opportunity to complete their degrees.”