What Price Athletic Success On America's Campuses?

MayorBob.

Posted to Etcetera on Tue Dec 19, 2006 at 11:56:36 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

According to mission statements of most major colleges and universities, the emphasis belongs on the first word of the term "student athlete." The primary purpose of these institutions is to advance knowledge, promote teaching and research, and help society discover new ways to overcome its most pressing problems.  According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) the words are synonymous with each other because "when the athlete can no longer play, the student can still succeed."  Please note that you would be hard put to find a school which will place athletic success above academic achievement or promote the idea that rules and regulations meant to insure the primacy of academics above athletics on the school campus are meant to be bent or broken.  However, there are reports of some schools' lax enforcement of standards which make you question the veracity of the official line.

An internal audit at Auburn University revealed a scholarship athlete's grade was changed without the professor's knowledge, so the athlete would reach the minimum average needed for eligibility. The class was a directed reading class which didn't require class attendance and which is generally considered a "cake" course by most students.  The score had been changed from an incomplete to an A.  Sociology professor Jim Gundlach, who revealed some of the problems with the university's directed reading program in the past, says: "This ain't over.  That was my first reaction to this, looking at the academic characteristics of the person involved and how many classes they had with Petee (directed reading director) and how much of it was during that last semester, and the grade-change thing was the deciding factor in graduation."  Gundlach said his interest in the matter was peaked when he was watching an Auburn football game and one of the players was identified as Sociology major and "student-athlete of the week."  Gundlach said he didn't recognize the kid so he did a little digging.  It turned out "that 18 players on the undefeated 2004 Auburn football team had taken a combined 97 hours of directed-readings courses with Petee during their careers."  Auburn isn't officially responding to the news story.

A special committee at the University of Georgia looked at a special program run out of president Michael Adams' office.  The special program involved student athletes allowed to enroll at the school in spite of not meeting academic standards.  The "presidential admits" had a dropout rate of 18 percent.  A full third of those who dropped out did so because of academic failure.  According to Dick Bestwick, a senior Georgia adviser to the president, the athletes were accepted to keep Georgia athletic teams competitive, not necessarily to cast the educational net wider in hopes of giving a disadvantaged student a chance at an education, "If you want to win, you're going to have to have some people who are at risk."

Meanwhile, a survey of some Western institutions with programs similar to Georgia's found that special admissions tended to go to highly recruited jocks while very few went to regular students.  Some of the 19 schools surveyed by the San Diego Union Tribune, such as the Air Force Academy or Colorado State University, said if an extremely talented jock doesn't qualify academically to enter their school, they won't get admitted, period.  However, such wasn't the case at UCLA and San Diego State University (SDSU).  The percentage of special admits to the general study body at UCLA is three percent and at SDSU it's about 20 percent.  The percentage of special admits over the past three for student athletes is 70 percent at UCLA and is 64.5 percent at SDSU.  The University of California registered more than 50 percent of admitted student athletes being at Berkeley on a special admission.  According to UCLA Assistant Vice Chancellor Tom Lifka clarifies the high ratio of special admissions among the jocks: "In order to be competitive in Division I-A athletics, you're going to have to have some flexibility compared to your normal admission policy.  We need those students if we're going to be competitive in certain sports."

David Ridpath is an observer of the educational scene who has testified to Congress regarding the charade some schools make out of enforcing NCAA rules regarding athletes' academic standards.  He believes these special admission programs are wrong on the face of them and the fact that they are so heavily skewed in favor of student athletes they give the appearance they are "not generally available to other students."  According to Ridpath, "If a school allows special admits, they should be few and far between and equitable across the board."  He especially loathes the notion of athletic programs holding any sway over academics at a university:

"The athletic department should not be involved in admission issues, and it should not be involved in academics. If they want to be involved in these academic areas, then they need to let me coach."