Athletics and Education by Degrees
Stuart Nachbar
November 25, 2008
Last week, USA Today ran a series on academic advising and the major college sports. The first installment discussed the clustering of student-athletes into majors with "fan-friendly" professors and less demanding course requirements.
The first stories featured anecdotal interviews with athletes, one was a Kansas State graduate who regretted earning a social sciences degree; he had started pre-vet, but gave up the objective to maintain his football eligibility. Another was a profile of a University of South Florida student in biomedical sciences who played women´s basketball. Her story was less extreme than the first; she switched from nursing to the biomedical sciences major and she has made a strong case for admission to medical school.
The coaches interviewed in the first story blamed the emphasis on the Academic Performance Rating (APR) for the attraction of the "easier" majors. The more pressure to graduate athletes, they said, the more necessary it became for academic advisors and assistant coaches to steer them into less demanding programs, also known as "worthless" degrees. But let´s back up a step. An athlete is entitled to the same academics and student services as any other student. And the athlete´s education is worth no more or less than the education of a student who has the same degree.
I spent ten years of my life working with career counselors who helped college students discover their interests and find jobs. I know from experience that it is rare for a very bright college freshman to know what they want from the get-go. So I can understand the coach´s logic when it comes to working with the less studious athletes. But it´s not a coach´s responsibility to help students determine their career interests. There are good counselors available to help. And they´re also available to the rest of the student body. All it takes is time to take an appointment and listen.
A scholarship athlete can graduate with a communications or social sciences degree from an accredited university, but so can any other member of the student body. Athletes receive tutoring, but again, so do non-athletes. But if universities consider the athlete´s choices of majors to be a serious problem, then they should eliminate the least demanding majors, or have more stringent graduate requirements, for all students. Impose the same academic standards on student-athletes that are imposed on students who are not athletes.
The differences between the scholarship athletes and the non-athletes are that the athletes can get an extra year to finish their education and, at some universities such as Ohio State, they can get course credit for playing their sport. If schools are serious about making student-athletes more studious, then they should discontinue both practices. And if athletes want to concentrate on eligibility, they can find another school that will be more accommodating.
There will always be a university that is ready to take the star athletes with less-than-stellar grades who are willing to be shepherded through a curriculum designed to help them slide by. But what if that school wins far more than they lose? How many of their opponents will stand by their coaches for doing the right things by their students and athletes? I´d love to read your answers to that question.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.
The first stories featured anecdotal interviews with athletes, one was a Kansas State graduate who regretted earning a social sciences degree; he had started pre-vet, but gave up the objective to maintain his football eligibility. Another was a profile of a University of South Florida student in biomedical sciences who played women´s basketball. Her story was less extreme than the first; she switched from nursing to the biomedical sciences major and she has made a strong case for admission to medical school.
The coaches interviewed in the first story blamed the emphasis on the Academic Performance Rating (APR) for the attraction of the "easier" majors. The more pressure to graduate athletes, they said, the more necessary it became for academic advisors and assistant coaches to steer them into less demanding programs, also known as "worthless" degrees. But let´s back up a step. An athlete is entitled to the same academics and student services as any other student. And the athlete´s education is worth no more or less than the education of a student who has the same degree.
I spent ten years of my life working with career counselors who helped college students discover their interests and find jobs. I know from experience that it is rare for a very bright college freshman to know what they want from the get-go. So I can understand the coach´s logic when it comes to working with the less studious athletes. But it´s not a coach´s responsibility to help students determine their career interests. There are good counselors available to help. And they´re also available to the rest of the student body. All it takes is time to take an appointment and listen.
A scholarship athlete can graduate with a communications or social sciences degree from an accredited university, but so can any other member of the student body. Athletes receive tutoring, but again, so do non-athletes. But if universities consider the athlete´s choices of majors to be a serious problem, then they should eliminate the least demanding majors, or have more stringent graduate requirements, for all students. Impose the same academic standards on student-athletes that are imposed on students who are not athletes.
The differences between the scholarship athletes and the non-athletes are that the athletes can get an extra year to finish their education and, at some universities such as Ohio State, they can get course credit for playing their sport. If schools are serious about making student-athletes more studious, then they should discontinue both practices. And if athletes want to concentrate on eligibility, they can find another school that will be more accommodating.
There will always be a university that is ready to take the star athletes with less-than-stellar grades who are willing to be shepherded through a curriculum designed to help them slide by. But what if that school wins far more than they lose? How many of their opponents will stand by their coaches for doing the right things by their students and athletes? I´d love to read your answers to that question.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.
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