But really, wasn’t this the only option? Had Dantonio decided to allow these players to compete in the bowl game, their suspensions would have meant nothing, amounting to nothing more than a mini-vacation from practice for a week or two.

Although we support the decision to keep the players suspended for the remainder of the season, there still are a lot of unresolved issues and unanswered questions.

One is the issue of these players’ scholarships. According to university spokesperson Terry Denbow, former players Glenn Winston and Roderick Jenrette will remain on scholarship because it’s guaranteed for one academic year. Even if this is the case, we find it unacceptable that the educations of athletes who were in involved in assaults on other students — twice, in Winston’s case — still are being paid for by their fellow students’ tuition and donor dollars. It’s ridiculous that the university is obliged to provide scholarships for these players just because it’s “guaranteed” by some sort of contract. The university needs to clarify its athletic scholarship policy to the public, and if that policy doesn’t include measures to revoke a scholarship if a student breaks the law, then the policy must be changed.

If a student on an academic scholarship can lose it if their grades slip, so should a student on an athletic scholarship lose it if he or she breaks the law or “violates team rules.” Students in the music therapy and deaf education programs are seeing their academic programs cut because of a lack of funding — and, to our knowledge, students in these programs haven’t gone around assaulting people. We realize athletic scholarships can’t just be diverted to help save academic programs, but there probably are some other athletes more deserving of such scholarships who aren’t getting themselves involved in scuffles during the weekends.

If we fail a test, we often don’t get another chance to retake it at our leisure. Yet Dantonio saw fit to reinstate Winston to the team as soon as his jail sentence was up. If only we normal students were afforded such generous help in the classroom.

Dantonio was quoted as saying, “Zero tolerance played into (their dismissal). Given a second opportunity, there’s zero tolerance.”

We find this statement more than a little ironic considering zero tolerance, in our minds, means just that — zero tolerance. There should be no second chances for players who engage in violent behavior, and Winston never should have been let back on the team after his first jail sentence. If there is no policy to prevent something like this from happening in the future, the university needs to create one. Immediately.

We’re glad Dantonio has shown the courage to show these players the consequences of their actions, but we see it as only a first step in a list of things that must be done to improve the integrity of the football program. After all, MSU never should feel it has to sacrifice winning morals for the sake of a winning team.