I teach at two state universities--Big Southern State U and Second String State U. My department at Southern attracts a large number of student-athletes, particularly in the university's spectacularly bankrolled men's basketball and men's football teams. We also have a fair number of not-quite-so-bankrolled women's basketballers and a miscellany of athletes from other sports.
Our male basketball and football players are notoriously bad students. Our department is notoriously easy...unless you take classes from me or two of my colleagues. Students can (and do) easily avoid us. Consequently, our student athletes are encouraged to major in our discipline, or one of two others, because the discipline is not terribly difficult for them to pass. However, every semester at least a few athletes end up in my class. When I taught Freshman Comp, even more of these poor bastards received the pearls of my academic wisdom.
Last week I received the first email from the athletics tutoring department at Big South. Is my student Sam Shooter in class? How is he doing? Is Mr Quarterback appearing regularly? Does he talk in class?
I teach a lecture class. Odds are good, I recognize these students (if at all) by the fact that they are twice the size of my other students and disproportionally African-American. Indeed, in a sea of heavily made-up white faces with highlighted brown hair (or is it lowlighted blond hair?), these kids stick out. I notice if they are not there. So I can tell you whether or not Sam is around, and whether the QB is attentive.
But past that? I got nothin'. No grades as of yet (I am looking at the stack of exams now.)
I resent being asked to police my athletes more closely than my other students. I did reply politely that while I generally did not take attendance, the students seemed to be attending regularly, and that I had no test results as of yet. But, really? Seriously? I need to keep careful track of these precious and unique snowflakes?
I recently learned that some students have "babysitters" who walk the student to class in order to ensure attendance. For real, this happens. I have seen it.
I am of two minds about my athletes. Firstly, I think that they are basically doing two jobs--being a student and being an athlete. They have absolutely brutal schedules. This is a serious challenge. Secondly, I think that they know what they are signing up for, and that they do have as much of an obligation to succeed at the job of "student" as they have an obligation to succeed as the job of "athlete."
What are your experiences with student-athletes and the machinery supporting them?
At my university I usually get a few each semester (mostly because they can't know who's going to teach any one course so they have to go by scheduling alone). There's a lot of hand-holding as usual, lots of "does he/she need a tutor?" No, they need to learn how to follow directions and spend more than an hour on a paper.
ReplyDeleteBut if I ever have a problem, even a slight one, from a student athlete, all I have to do is call or email the athletic department and those same handlers will ensure that said student gets his ass chewed out for whatever he/she is or isn't doing in my course. No quicker way to change a student's attitude (at least for a few weeks).
Hey Blackdog,
ReplyDeleteSure they get extra help. Lots of students get various advantages like free tutoring, time management help, parents who own more books than porn website subscriptions, etc. This is how they get help. Although it's for ulterior motives (winning on Saturday), at least somebody cares about the students.
I teach in a major that is very popular with athletes, less-than-stellar students, and less-than-stellar student-athletes. They think the classes will be easy, and if they take The Idiot, they probably are right. But with me it is a different story.
ReplyDeleteMany coaches at Midwestern Miracle University require players to submit forms with course information, including absences and grades. A couple of times a sememster, I get bombarded before and after class with these sheets. Not only do these snowflakes expect me to know their grades and absences OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD, but they expect me to fill out the identifying information for them (you know, stuff like name of course, name of professor, credit hours). My standard response now: "Just because I am a woman doesn't mean I'm your secretary. Fill out the form yourself and then see me in my office during my office hours."
I agree with May. When I have issues with a student-athlete, I don't hesitate to narc them out to their coach. Apparently his ability to make them run extra drills is far more meaningful than my ability to fail them.
I have to do just as much hand-holding and tattling with students in the learning disability program.
Can't get over the feeling that I know which school and which department you teach in. But this is probably because at big basketball/football schools there is always such a department.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Ben, this is the form of help they get, and it should be viewed in the context of the kinds of help the wealthier kids have received their whole lives. I have no problem with it, as long as it doesn't degenerate into tutors doing the work for the students.
ReplyDeleteI've had some stellar student athletes in my classes (one current NFL player who was just a terrific, terrific student) and some duds (another current NFL player who I flunked). So I don't think it is that useful to generalize, except perhaps to say that I've had more stellar female student-athletes than male. Some of the athletes handle the incredible demands on their time well, others don't. Most student athletes I've known have been pretty realistic about both their prospects for a pro-career and the degree to which the school is using them.
Mot importantly, I've never once had an athlete in my office complaining about a grade. They seem to understand that performance is measured according to particular criteria in a way that the average upper-middle class whiner doesn't.
As for the emails requesting info, the NCAA imposes certain reporting requirements, and so it may just be a standard form of data collection. Even at the Div III school where I now teach, they collect those data.
We academics at my institution strive to provide a university the athletes can be proud of, and, to that end, most of us treat the athletes like any other students and expect just as much from any of them - even football players.
ReplyDeleteNow, ALL the athletes on scholarship have tutors, which I view more or less like Ben and Archie do, but, conversely, they all have an athletics department looking over their shoulders - I've already had to go online and confirm that they are in classes and that they aren't failing or anything. Sure, it's a pain, but it means the sports folks are taking seriously the responsibility to ensure that their kids pay some attention to academics, as well (and that they understand they can't do it without my involvement).
I don't mind the kids getting tutors. I do mind if the tutors do the work for the kids. Most of them don't - I've seen the inside of that operation. And, honestly, most of the athletes are, at worst, mediocre students. There're outliers, sure, but - at least here - they're no more common than amongst the general student body.
I'll start answering those emails from the athletic department when someone starts monitoring the single mothers, and the kids working 40 hours a week to pay tuition, and trying to go to school full time, and the combat veterans dealing with PTSD, just as closely. In the meantime, I refuse to deprive the athletes of skills that my university, for better or for worse, develops in the majority of its students: time management, self-monitoring, figuring out how to navigate a large, complex bureaucracy. If the athletes come to my office hours or email me to ask about their grades, I'll happily give them the same answer that I'd provide to any other student with the same question (which mostly consists of pointing out where they can find their grades on completed assignments on Blackboard, and the section of the syllabus that lists the percentages that go into the final grade). I'll also point out that they're free to share that information with anyone they choose, including their coaches. But, FERPA waiver or no FERPA waiver, I really don't want to communicate with a coach any more than I want to communicate with a parent, and for much the same reason -- our students are adults, and should be treated as such.
ReplyDeleteI might feel differently if our athletes were, on average, less privileged than the rest of our undergraduates. Although a few of our athletes meet that description, many are, in fact, more privileged than our non-athletes; if nothing else, their student-athlete status signals that, unlike some of their classmates, they probably weren't working 40 hours a week -- or babysitting their siblings so that their parents could work 80 hours a week -- during high school.
We also have student athletes who are more student than athlete. (Well, most of our illegal recruits are in CHESS, so that tells you something.) Women's volleyball = plagiarists. Everyone else has been great -- I was so worried my first semester because I had a lot of male athletes. While at the CC, they were entitled and horrible, a call to the coach cleared that up. (I think I just emailed the athletic department, instead of figuring out who coached what, and it still worked. 1 dropped, 1 got much better, 1 was at least quieter. The athletes at the U were the most quiet, kind, respectful, diligent students ever. They may not have been the brightest, but they valued perseverance, and since I allow rewrites for most work (it's a comp class), then they do well.
ReplyDeleteI also have to provide "are they in danger of failing" reports (checking off on a list, clicking a button) on first-year-freshmen, so it's not a big deal to me. What I hate is when grad students at our university want me to provide grading data for students meeting X criteria, but not Y, and I have to subtract out this and that component of their grades, and I can't just send them my worksheet because of confidentiality.... I don't want to do their homework for them! Especially when it's phrased as a demand, and not a polite request.
But a quick "probably passing Y/N?" is fine.