At the small liberal arts college I'm at now, I actually have students on most of our teams, and they are among the most conscientious.
But how do students get school work done on these top tier programs when they're traveling and competing over a long period of time like the NCAA tournament?
My hubby made me watch Florida Gulf Coast's game yesterday and despite all the running and slamming, all I could think was, "When are they finishing their essays?"
It's a category mistake to think of them as 'student athletes' The official definition just enables their exploitation (not completely unlike the way claiming TAs as primarily grad students rather than employees is used to prevent attempts to unionize). See for example: http://www.salon.com/2013/01/28/is_the_outrageous_exploitation_of_college_athletes_coming_to_an_end_partner/
ReplyDeleteI don't follow college basketball but I seem to remember Butler making it far into the tournament a few years ago and playing in their own home town. The students took the time to drive back to their school to take exams even though they could have been excused from it.
ReplyDeleteHow do they do it? Pretty easily I assume. It's not like the people who write their essays for them are on the trip.
In my regional state uni, I have a variety of student-athletes. It's always been my experience that much depends on the coach of the team. My soccer players, for instance, almost invariably take Ws in courses, or drop/add like crazy until they get in a class they can pass with minimal efforts.
ReplyDeleteOur baseball coach, on the other hand, visits me every semester with a couple of players in tow. He tells me to call him if they fall behind, and when I have, he's done yeoman's work to get students back on target, even proctoring tests on the road.
Football coach has long since advised students not to take me, so I only occasionally see a freshman kicker.
I once had a student athlete inform me he was brought in to make sure the team won so it was my job to pass him. I didn't. I've also failed my share of football players and, believe it or not, a guy on a golf scholarship. This term, I'm failing yet another athlete who can not figure out that he is only covered when classes missed correspond to competing in an event.
ReplyDeleteI've also had student athletes ask me to send the coach the tests in a sealed envelope so he could administer them as close as possible to the time the rest of the class was writing. They showed me a practice schedule that had study time built into it.
My favorite student athlete was an alternate at the Beijing Olympics. She managed to submit work on Backboard before they cut her internet.
There are jocks: all sports, no school work
Then there student athletes: finding the balance between sport and school work.
The NCAA has an unfair monopoly and makes billions (really) from the unpaid labor of (student) athletes. I don't think I have read a better analysis of it than the piece that was in The Atlantic a few years back:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/308643/
But what do we as educators do when faced with this? Can we do much to stem not only the tide of so much money and influence but also an entire (sub)culture that values athletic achievement over all else?
The ubiquity of this is something I have been feeling lately while choosing clothing for my 15 month old son. So much of it praises sports ("First Round Draft Pick", "Daddy's QB" etc.) but none of it projects different aims.
Although, perhaps "Future Nobel Laureate" or "Astronaut" or "Cancer Killer" might seem hubristic...
I'd love to dress my kids in a shirt that reads, "My parents are raising me to be a decent human being." It puts all the other shirts' messages in perspective.
DeleteAh, beaker ben, that would be quite the shirt.
Delete(And the sentiment makes me feel positively pusillanimous for wanting a 'Future Mathematician" onesie.)
It helps the parents feel morally superior to all other parents. I'm pretty sure it would be a money maker.
DeleteIt is hard work to keep up with studying and athletics andI would not want to do it! Those athletes that do not keep up in class, do not pass. In fact they get into big trouble with the athletic department here when they fail classes. Here at my SLAC the baseball team travels a lot in the spring. Last spring I had several players on the team and they would be in class once a week!
ReplyDeleteLike Sarcastic Bastard said there is difference between the jocks and the student athletes.
I've also always had good experience with athletes depending on the coaches. Our women's coaches have always been good about making sure their athletes are on track, aren't overloaded with classes, and are conscientious about getting work done and letting the professors know what's going on. Our women's basketball, volleyball, and softball teams all have mandatory old-fashioned study hall every day after practice. I have been asked (by the coaches and players) to attend one or two of those sessions when I've had multiple players in my classes to offer help. Sometimes I'm able to do that, and sometime I send my student worker or an employee from the Writing Lab. The men's teams... not so much. And sadly, the athletes are the ones who flounder.
ReplyDeleteIt has been a few years since I've had a coach try to "pressure" me into changing a grade or allowing extensions for players, but, like Hiram, I don't think this is because they've stopped attempting that; they've just learned to tell their athletes not to sign up for my classes.
The fun part is when the coach is pressuring your department to aggressively recruit a prospect who will be great on the team, but has zero chance of success in your discipline because he doesn't have the academic chops.
DeleteI recently replied to an email from a student detailing just how busy he was with practices and games (as a supposed excuse for late work/missed classes) with a somewhat faux-helpful email saying that it sounded like his coach might be asking for more than the 20 hours a week allowed by the NCAA, and he might want to have a talk with the coach about that, since it's against the rules, and, in fact, as I discovered when I googled to double-check the rules, a coach in his sport at another school had recently been fired for exactly that offense, so he probably had some leverage at the moment to get things back in balance. I did hold my breath for about a week wondering if I was going to get a blast from some higher-up, but nothing happened (including the student turning in the late work, but that isn't really a surprise. We're not really a big sports school, so the lack of backlash isn't a tremendous surprise, either).
ReplyDeleteIt also disturbs me that the students who pay for their tuition by working (supposedly) 20 hours a week for part of the year as athletic entertainers/name recognition increasers (I think that's their job, as best I can describe it) get all sorts of support services and tracking of their grades, attendance, etc. (including attendance in online classes; I'm not sure quite how one would answer that question), while their many classmates who spend more than 20 hours a week year-'round working in other ways to pay for tuition and expenses (or caring for their children, siblings, and/or grandparents) get no such support. We actually have pretty good general support services; since we're short on money these days, why can't the school eliminate the duplication, absorb any tutors and other support staff who're genuinely competent (and willing to play by the rules) into the relevant general academic office (tutoring center, academic support wing of counseling services, etc.) and carry on? If the sports teams fall apart as a result -- well, that tells you something, doesn't it?
Somebody really needs to run some serious numbers of the cost of athletic programs. By all reports, such programs are one of the frills that is lacking in the for-profits that allows them to keep costs down. I'd like to see just one college president be brave enough to try the experiment of eliminating all varsity athletics, and letting the financial chips fall where they may. It just might work (and if the school falls apart without the athletic programs, well, once again, what does that suggest?)
Their SOs are writing the essays. Or their Mothers.
ReplyDeleteMy experiences when I was at a D1 were generally good with this. I can't say they students weren't getting unauthorized help sometimes, but, on average, they outperformed the average student on tests in class.
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