I attend a class whose premise is theoretical and practical applications of leadership through the lens of a certain college sport. This course is co-taught by our college's coach in that sport. It is essentially a class full of people who are fans of this sport and wanted to see the coach of said sport, myself included, except for one guy who comes off as a curmudgeon and probably shouldn't be in the class as he clearly doesn't enjoy it.I am a fan of college sports and sport in general. I think that athletes have a place in college and that they bring value to colleges which is why we offer them scholarships. That being said, this discussion still shocked me. I forget how it started, but the interesting bit began when the coach present said something along the lines of, "Our University has gotten better over the years about encouraging professors to make allowances for student athletes."
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And, le playlet:
Student A: Do you find that some professors aren't very understanding when it comes to student athletes?
Coach: Yes, there are some professors who just say "I don't care if you're a student athlete. You have to attend class and do the papers just like everyone else, no exceptions." and they just don't give any yield.
Students: Murmurs of disapproval.
Student B: In [my athletic program] our coach tells us which teachers not to take because they aren't "athlete friendly".
Coach: Yeah, we have a bit of that going on too. But, you know, by and large I think the professorship at this University recognizes that athletes provide a service to the school and are willing to cut them a bit of slack. And there are some professors that we have a good relationship with along that line.
Professor: Yeah, that's very interesting how some teachers are willing to bend a bit when it comes to student athletes and others aren't. I know I've always been a bit more lenient in that regard.
Student C: Professors just shouldn't be allowed to fail student athletes. Like, yaknow, the lowest they can get is a C minus or something like that.
Coach: Well, that would be ideal, but I don't see that happening in the near future.
[laughter]
Coach: It's better to just avoid those tenured professors that are... unshakable in their pedagogy and stick with the more forward thinking professors. And that tends to solve the problem.
Fin.
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What the quack? I don't even have a tongue-in-cheek prayer to recite for this one. I was just so flabbergasted that this discussion took place, with a professor in the room. FQS (for quack's sake). Is Athletic Privilege this widespread? And so casually acknowledged? I am a bizarre mixture of befuddled, enraged, and saddened. Have any of you been browbeaten into treating student athletes differently?
When I was a young Graduate Assistant lass, one of the requirements of keeping my scholarships was to spend a certain amount of time tutoring in the writing center. In the writing center, we were schooled in a certain tutoring pedagogy that dictated that we write nothing down.....only the student could write during a session working with an essay. They were sticklers about it. If they (the leadership of the academic support center) came in, and we were holding a pen, heaven help us. This was, of course, to ensure that in our youthful weakness we did not succumb to the ever present student pressure to actually rewrite their essay for them there in the tutoring session. We did, at the end of the session, fill out a session report, but I digress.
ReplyDeleteAnother aspect of keeping my scholarship was to tutor student athletes, who had their own academic support center near the gym. In that academic support center, we sat at computers, our little athletes next to us, soaking in the learning while we typed away at their essays, fixing all the dumbass problems. That was what we were supposed to do, and by God, at the time, I found it easier, to be honest, to explain how I was fixing it (and they were actually pretty appreciative and made a good show of seeming like they cared) than to try to coax some good ideas of their own out of the "regular" students.
I thought it was terrible, the double standard on tutoring, but to be honest, I would have done just about anything to keep that scholarship.
I teach at a Division III school; none of our athletes have scholarships and the chances are practically zero that they are going anywhere. I've never been pressured to grade athletes any differently, but essentially all of them I have ever had in class put athletics before their studies.
ReplyDeleteI'm on the list of professors to avoid. Good.
ReplyDeleteOne of the advantages of living in the Naked North is that there are no athletic scholarships (our campus sports field has less than ten rows of bleachers). So it's one less thing for the Universities to have to deal with, and I've certainly never been pressured to pass a failing athlete.
ReplyDeleteBut. For the young athlete, who thinks they might have a chance of playing professionally and want to pursue it, the US college sports system offers at least an opportunity of a plan B (ie getting an education) that is absent here in Canuckistan. Here, junior athletes spend their time not in a classroom, but on a minor league team bus traveling from Chibougamou Quebec to West Buffalo Nut, Saskatchewan.
I realize most student athletes think they are the exceptions who are 'going to make it', and never take advantage of the opportunity they're being offered (and being granted free passes doesn't help). But at least the system offers them the chance at an education to fall back on if (when?) they get injured, don't make the cut, or are otherwise winnowed out of the system.
Still. I'm glad I don't have to teach in that system.
In principle, I absolutely agree with you that it's good for these athletes to also get a degree, so that when they (the vast majority of them) don't make it to the professional level in their chosen sports, they still have something to show for their efforts.
DeleteThe problem is that, especially in the big, successful programs, the pressure on them to put their sports before everything else is overwhelming. Some of these students aren't very good scholars anyway (some, of course, are excellent), and the fact that they spend almost every waking minute thinking and practicing football or basketball doesn't exactly make them likely to improve academically.
If they do decide to devote enough time to their studies, they often face pressure from coaches to focus on their sports. And if their performance on the field suffers during college, or if they receive a career-ending injury, they often lose their opportunity to fall back on their education. Did you know that, at many big athletic schools, players who get dropped from the team for performance issues, or who are injured badly enough that they have to quit playing, often lose their scholarships and have to drop out of college?
The system is a disgrace. The universities make a fortune off these kids, and NCCA rules mean that the players aren't even allowed to take part-time jobs in order to make ends meet. Even in the huge, dominant Division 1 football and basketball programs, only a tiny minority of the players ever go on to make the pros. Division 1 football and basketball are billion-dollar industries, making a fortune for the NCAA, the colleges, the coaches, the TV networks, and the advertisers. Yet the people who provide all of the entertainment and do the real work can't even accept a bit of financial help from a donor, or take a job, because it might violate the NCAA's spirit of amateurism. What a fucking joke.
Historian Taylor Branch wrote an excellent article on college sports for The Atlantic a while back, and it's definitely worth reading. He argues that the student athletes in big, money-making programs like Div 1 football should be paid, or at the very least have their scholarships guaranteed for the duration of their degree, even if they're injured or dropped from the team.
I very much like the guaranteed-scholarship idea. Another option would be to exempt athletes from classes (and from earning any credit) during in-season semesters, but still guarantee them support for a full 8 credit-earning semesters (either in their teens/early twenties, or after they retire from pro sports, if they get that chance). My first choice would actually be the system R and/or G describes -- farm team sports *or* college, at least at any one time -- but, barring that, athletes in high-profile college sports need to be paid, and I'd like to see that pay come in the form of scholarships redeemable at times when they're not playing/training too hard to concentrate on academics.
DeletePoint(s) taken DA. I must confess that I've never looked closely into the inner workings of US athletic scholarships - for much the same reason I haven't looked into the inner workings of, say, a sausage factory. I would imagine though, that many of the pressures you raise about university athletics apply just as strongly to some of the kids on the bus to Brandon. And they have to try to keep up their schooling from a few textbooks at the bottom of their hockey bags.
DeleteI think the point I wanted to make is that if one wanted to construct a fair and supportive system in which skilled athletic kids could try to see if they can make it to the pros, that system would be easier to construct in a university scholarship system (albeit one that does more than pay lip service to scholarship), than a minor farm system. But as you point out, the present system obviously isn't it, and the higher-ups seem uninterested in constructing the fair system I envision.
@DA: Agreed. @CC: Brilliant. I read that Atlantic article and wondered why it didn't become a meme the way certain other Atlantic articles (e.g., about affairs and divorce) have done.
DeleteMy teaching assistantship was at a full Div I school, and my lowly Hamster Fundamentals class was awarded the course number of 100. (HAMS 100, if you will). This made it an athlete magnet, which was cool for this 23 year old. While it was clear that many of these future pros felt entitled, I had overall positive experiences, especially with female athletes and with sports like Baseball. Perhaps my best student in the two years in that class was a pitcher, whose life goal was to become a neurosurgeon. I served as a reference for a summer internship at the NIH and occasionally caught up with him. A few years after taking my class I was watching ESPN and was pleasantly surprised to see that he was in the Majors - an outcome that was extremely unlikely when took my class.
ReplyDeleteI had the star basketball player for a time as well. That's when I first learned of FERPA. Good times. Although a single email, fired off to the university's athletic tutoring service did result in the coaching staff showing up to my classroom for a week. Not to chat, mind you, but to see if the student attended.
Now, I'm at a mostly Div II school, and there is zero expectation of making it to the pros, except for one sport. Again, these young athletes tend to be among the hardest workers and have the best attendance in my courses. It does help to have some activity to help the flakes focus their time and to develop the notion of a schedule for their studies.
I guess I can't say that I have had the experience detailed above - but I will say that at every institution that I've been to or served as a professor - the student athletes, more than any other group, have a list of courses and teachers that they try desperately to take.
My experience was the exact opposite of this, and I was shocked and pleased about it. If I had a student athlete, the coach would come to my office hours and ask what that student needed to do to improve. He took notes. In one instance, I told him the student hadn't taken advantage of a revision opportunity, and he flipped his shit. That was "unacceptable," to let an opportunity like that slide by, and he'd be having words with the student. He told me that he tells his athletes that their chances of making it pro are so low that they're practically obligated to take advantage of the practically-free education they're being provided, and that slacking off is not acceptable. It was so exactly the opposite of what I expected from a meeting with a sports coach that my jaw was on the floor when he left.
ReplyDeleteIn my first gig there was a particular professor who hated athletes with a white-hot passion. (To be fair, though, he didn't like most other students very much either.) His exams were all subjective essays sans grading rubric- he "knew good work when he saw it."
ReplyDeleteOne athlete had to take a course from this professor because it was the only section that would fit around his other honors-level courses. It was the only course he made less than an "A" in; not in that semester, in his entire college career.
I'd really, really like to see the separate advising/tutoring apparatus for athletes dismantled, and folded into the regular advising system. I'm not sure ours is going badly astray (I've had a few athletes in the higher-profile sports who seemed overly-dependent on the tutors -- e.g. asking for extensions because they hadn't been able to get an appointment with a tutor, but that's rare), but it just seems like unnecessary duplication of effort, especially at a time of tight budgets and long waiting lists at the regular writing center -- and especially when we have many groups of students who have at least equal need of the kind of personal attention athletes receive -- full-time working students, single parents, etc. I'm sure there's something in NCAA regulations that makes this impossible (or supposedly impossible), but I think I'm going to start submitting this suggestion every time the university president and/or governor asks for cost-cutting suggestions. In the meantime, I ignore requests for progress reports on athletes, on the grounds that (1)I don't want to privilege athletes over members of other, quite possibly more vulnerable, groups, and (2) I don't want to contribute to the continuing infantilization of athletes, a few of whom seem incapable of tying their shoes without asking "coach" first.
ReplyDeleteDespite all of the above (and despite meeting claims of athletics-related busyness with suggestions that the student look into whether "coach" is violating the 20-hour-a-week rule), I regularly get athletes, including a few in the high-profile sports, in my classes (and not only the online ones). So apparently I'm not on a black list. If anything, the coaches/academic support staff seem to be responding to my lack of reports by instructing the student-athletes to contact/meet with me directly, which is just fine with me.
So I'd say that, at least on my campus, treating athletes like everyone else seems to go over reasonably well. While I'd like to see the amount of resources and attention devoted to athletics considerably diminished (as a relatively new university in relatively land-limited circumstances, I think we'd be good candidates to make a bold move and chuck NCAA athletics entirely), I don't think we're anywhere near the tail-wagging-the-dog situation that is prevalent at many state schools.
Conan, as far as I'm concerned, if that professor actually practices what he preaches, he ought to be fired, on the basis that he has failed in his basic duty to treat all students equitably.
And if you haven't already discovered Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, you might check it out; she provides regular links to the excesses of college athletics. Come to think of it, if you're feeling really brave, you might find some material for class discussion in there (or you could start an email discussion with the professor about the possible excesses of college sports; I'd suggest waiting until you get a grade in the class, though). The href="http://www.news-record.com/news/schools/article_1fdb0cba-a0fc-5533-95d0-0435cc1aa048.html?mode=jqm">recent scandal at UNC-Chapel Hill regarding fake Afro-Am classes at Chapel Hill might provide an instructive example of a professor who took the idea of giving athletes special privileges to a logical extreme (and yes, those of us who remember how hard it was for Afro-Am to claim its status as a legitimate field are really, really angry at this guy).
I'm afraid you may come out of thinking about this a bit more with a more jaded view of college sports, but perhaps that's to the best. Somewhere in the near-to-middle future, there might be a business opportunity in working on the transition from college sports to some sort of farm-team system more or less fully spun off from the current university system (at least I hope that will be the case).
Sorry; I didn't get that last link quite right. Either cut and paste, or try this one.
DeleteI so wish we didn't have two Conan stories running in the same time period! I get so easily confused. Conan the Grammarian is a student who has joined us fairly recently, and Conan the Confused is the misunderstood faculty member who's a colleague of a community member. If another Conan comes around, I'm going to flip out.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of (mild) confusion, though I generally like the olive-green that appeared a few days ago, after inserting a couple of links into comments today, I'm realizing it doesn't present much of a contrast to black, at least to my aging eyes (maybe Conan, for whom the links were intended, can see them just fine, since he's presumably several decades younger than I).
DeleteHow would you feel about an Onan?
DeleteLet me know how the new link color is working.
DeleteGood colors. Very Christmas.
DeleteDefinitely better; that little bit more brightness makes a difference, at least to my eyes. Thanks!
DeleteSORRRRRY!!! MY FAULT! I didn't remember we had a Conan when I named mine Conan the Confused. I'm happy to call him Carl the Confused instead. :/
DeleteCC, don't worry. I just had a couple of emails about Conan and didn't know who they were about. It happens fairly rarely.
DeleteWent back to blue for link colors because there were complaints about the dark green and the light green. People on mobiles had more trouble than anyone.
I can go change Conan's name (would that help?).
DeleteThanks for changing colors for us. I don't even know what that means, but thank you. :)
Not to worry. Two Conans must be better than one. No more Fabs or Walters though.
DeleteThinking maybe about putting together a panel discussion at MLA titled, "Interpreting and Problematizing the True Meanings of the Color Variations at College Misery: The CIA's Primary Vehicle for Communicating with Intellectuals?"
DeleteAt the only place I have ever taught with a major sport (they made it to the final four while I was there), the coaching staff never once pressured any of us to pass athletes. In fact, the semester I had a "star" the coach called me personally to make sure the student was attending and completing his work, and gave me his direct line should anything untoward happen. I never felt like this was pressure--in fact I was surprised that so much effort was going into making sure they were doing their school work. Then again, this is a school in the Jesuit tradition, so perhaps that had something to do with it?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm overly cynical, but I'd guess that the coach didn't want to lose his star player to a too-low GPA at a critical moment. I'd prefer that the athletes get just as much support/encouragement/tracking, and no more, than the rest of the students. But any system that makes the athlete responsible for his/her grades is better than any system that tries to make the professor responsible (or otherwise exerts pressure to grade athletes differently).
DeleteLet's be blunt: The 2 biggest problem sports are Football (Men's, natch) and Men's Basketball. Women's Basketball players tend to be pretty good students, IME. Same with (Men's) Baseball, (Men's) Wrestling, Lacrosse, and Field Hockey (Women's).
ReplyDeleteOther than the plethora of guys over the years who played basketball or football, the 2 biggest flakes in memory are a male Track&Field competitor and a female Gymnast. Both seemed to think that absence was an entitlement and I probably should have failed them for it (ah, to have actually taught at the sort of schools that *I* actually attended for college ... which included a CC!). Those last 2 atheletes didn't just miss class for "away games" ... Track Dude claimed he had to miss class every Friday to "help out" at the track field (um, no, sweetie) and Gymnastique thought any reason she invented gave her pre-permission to skip class, whether or not it was related to her sport.
I've had problems with more than one male baseball player, but that might be coincidence, or the culture at my school. I've generally had better luck with female than with male athletes, with crew and swimming ranking high on the no-trouble scale, regardless of the gender of the athletes involved.
DeleteThis also reminds me of another phenomenon: Certain athletes NEVER even told me they played a sport! I don't recall a single swimmer or diver ever identifying himself or herself.... Fascinating!
DeleteMy senior year, the women's swim team had the highest GPA in the entire division 3. We may not have been fast (well, a few of us were) but by gum we got good grades!
DeleteI've done all my grad work at two major Div I universities with big-time corporate sports structures.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I've never had a problem with athletes. However, I think this is because the "big time" athletes do not take classes with the rest of the population. I only occasionally see track stars and female basketball players. The male football and basketball players are kept out of view. To be honest, I don't think they even take classes. They're celebrities. It's gross.
I've always had great responses from female athletes and their coaches. The males, not so much. I think our SLAC is a sad Division III (if that), and only about 30 people show up for games (the same 30). The male coaches pull their athletes out of my classes if one should sign up, and female coaches encourage their athletes to take my courses. Who knows that that's about.
ReplyDelete*Who knows WHAT that's about.
DeleteI'm on the list of profs to avoid, too. Never a student-athlete in my intro classes. All they need to do is go on "that site". Good!
ReplyDeleteExcept once in a blue moon an athlete is majoring in my field, needs an upper-div class to graduate (last semester!) and I'm teaching the only section. The horror!
A long time ago I had a female swimmer. The subject was hard (PDE) and she was good! Then a long hiatus, and last semester I had a track guy. His homework was perfect (clearly his tutor was just doing it for him) and his tests terrible. The athletic dept periodically sent "how's he doing" emails. (All pro forma; if I say homework great, tests suck, then what?) He got a courtesy C-minus in the end. Stated plans: work at a bank and coach high school in his home town. (Probably doing double-duty as a math teacher.)
Where do people get this idea that de-facto professional athletic programs (like the footall and basketball programs at my school) are "good for the university"? It's not as if they share their income (tickets or alumni donations) with the academic side of the operation. And coaches' salaries are ridiculous, beating even administrators. High time we recognize them as pro clubs, pay the athletes and demand significant funds from them for using the University's name.