Academic Privilege at The University of Michigan: Student Essay

“For when the One Great Scorer comes to write against your name, he marks--not that you won or lost--but how you played the game.”
-- Grantland Rice

Starting with the Winter 08 term, a new policy at U-M allows student-athletes to sign up for classes before the general student body. This rankles me. Why? Because the course I teach, Argumentative Writing 225, which has cap of 22 students per section (I teach 2), will be filled with jocks (the roster now stands at 20 in one and 17 in the other). Now don’t get me wrong, as you all know, I love sports. But where’s the diversity? The overarching mission of The Comprehensive Studies Program, for which I teach, is to provide the kind of intensive scholastic and advisory support that facilitates the success of students from urban and rural areas where, due to socio-economic factors, schools have limited academic resources. My beef is this: much of the enrollment I had in the Fall term (College Writing 125) -- a mix of international, inner-city, and rural students, and some of whom I take a keen interest in their progress -- are now unable to get into my classes. Grrrrrrr!

Having gotten this off my chest, I thought some of you might like to see the sample student essay I intend to have us read, analyze, and discuss the first week of class. It was written by a most excellent student in my Fall 125 section who, not coincidentally, was pissed off about not being able to get the classes she needs to make steady progress towards her major (oops! I guess you now know the author’s gender).

Happy Holidays All! – Randy

PS: Thank you, Bonni Q., for the lovely holiday mix.
You too, Billy De Broux, for the Santalyzing Xmas Chick!

NOTE: Due to blog constraints, the formatting will look different than MLA style.

Beau Shemp-Beckler
Randy Tessier
English 125
1 December 2008

Academics Versus Athletics

Wander onto a college campus virtually any Saturday in the fall, and you will see streets flooded with students and fans in the school’s colors. A walk in the student housing section reveals students, many of them underage, having loud, drunken parties as early as ten a.m. When a favored team wins (or loses) it can cause riots in the streets. Why do schools put up with this chaos? Revenue, of course. As they say, money makes the world go round, and college athletics bring vast amounts to campuses around the country. In the 2004-2005 reporting year, the University of Michigan’s athletic department made more than $17 million in profits (Cooper). This figure doesn’t even include merchandising-- in 2005-2006, University of Texas set a record with $8.2 million in royalties (Barnidge). Understandably, the money generated by sports programs makes schools happy, and they are willing to do nearly anything to maintain their funds. However, the love officials have for this money leads to unfortunate consequences.

When he was applying to colleges, Matt Skoglund knew he didn’t have the grades to get into the top liberal arts colleges he wanted. But he was a star hockey player, and that gave him the little extra push over the top that he needed. ''I probably would not have gotten into Middlebury without hockey,” he said. “Being a hockey player gave me access to a first-rate education” (Fiske). The NCAA instituted a sliding-scale program in the 1990s to determine eligibility to play Division I-- the higher your GPA, the lower the SAT scores needed. Those with a 3.55 GPA need only a 400 on the SAT, one of the lowest possible scores. Brian Dunn, a football coach at Northern Valley Regional High School, says “I think it is fair, based on the fact that 3.55 would be a GPA they've achieved in the 16 core courses that are required -- which means no fluff courses -- four years of English, three years of math, sciences and social studies. So, if you do well in your core classes, they will cut you some slack with the SATs” (Dawkins). Good grades cut slack with admissions officials? I had a 3.58 cumulative GPA in high school, and even though I scored a 1,930 (out of 2,400) on the SAT, I was terrified that my grades wouldn’t be good enough. A 400 allowing students to play insults those that got higher and were rejected.

In their book, The Game of Life, James Shulman and William Bowen show that athletes not only enter selective schools with weaker academic records, but once in college they “consistently underperform academically even after we control for standardized test scores and other variables.” Boyce Watkins, a professor at Syracuse University, “once came across a student athlete that could only read at a fourth-grade level.” When the student turned in a paper that “looked like it was written by Edgar Allen Poe,” he was investigated under academic misconduct charges. However, when the evidence was submitted to a board of three students and four faculty, the faculty outvoted the students and he was allowed to continue at the university (Capriccioso). Compare this to a survey of 93 UK higher education institutions, in which a total of 9,229 cases were recorded in one year, and 143 students were expelled, according to a Higher Education Academy and Joint Information Systems Committee study (Attwood). At Auburn University, a sociology professor offered “direct reading” programs for athletes that “required no attendance and very little work” (Thamel). This program eventually led to a student being named as a “scholar athlete” for his work in his sociology major, despite the fact that three sociology professors, including the head of the department, had never seen the player before in their classes. Many schools offer independent study programs for athletes, with University of Michigan athletes being steered towards Professor Hagen, a psychology professor that allowed athletes to, in some cases, earn three or four credits for meeting with Hagen for as little as 15 minutes every two weeks (Carty). U of M also ushers athletes into the Comprehensive Studies Program, giving them smaller class sizes, more individualized attention, and in many cases, much easier courses.

The perks for college athletes don’t end there. At Syracuse University, athletes don’t just get tuition, room and board. They also “get free books, free Nike clothing and shoes and free meal plans. They even have the option of transferring the dollar amount of their meal plan onto their SUpercard FOOD account. That equates to anything from $1,790 to $2,825” (Cummings).

The University of Michigan has just instituted a new policy (with the resolution passing 23-3) that puts athletes ahead in priority over all students except the disabled. Previously, students were allowed to register based on the number of credits they had accumulated, making sure that seniors were able to access important classes required for their degrees that might otherwise be unavailable. Athletes, proponents of the policy say, have a similar problem-- since they have to work around practices and games, they have to register first. Other busy students are furious about the policy. LSA sophomore Lee Collins, an Army ROTC cadet, wakes up before dawn three days a week for physical training, leadership training and infantry tactics and land navigation. He, however, does not get special treatment. “There are so many people who are working very hard, paying their way through college, there is no special consideration for them,” Collins said. (The policy is) basically saying that the athletic department is a step ahead of the rest of the school.” He understands the bind that athletes are in, he says, “but student-athletes should remember the “student” part of their designation. “In ROTC, they say that you should be a student first and a cadet second. And because they are student-athletes, they are students first, and athletes second”” (Calero).

Contrary to common wisdom, athletics aren’t everything. If schools were to remove their football programs, attendance and accolades would not plummet. The University of Chicago was a founding member of the Big Ten Conference, winning seven titles from 1899 to 1924. However, they withdrew from the conference and dropped their football program to focus on academics shortly after World War II (Hardy). Without their football program, they still maintained a top-notch college, with one of the best economics departments in the world, 82 Nobel Prize Laureates, and the site of the world’s first self-sustaining nuclear reaction. Athletics are not necessary to success.

Students at universities must work hard to maintain their standing. If their GPA falls below a 2.0 (a C average) they are placed on academic probation, and if they fall severely enough, they are suspended from the school. Athletes are largely protected from this fear, and as such put in less work, attend class haphazardly, and care little about their education. The gross inconsistencies between students and “student-athletes” are unjust and a black mark on the records of the institutions. Universities should move away from the athletic, and back to the academic.

Works Cited

Attwood, Rebecca. "143 Students Expelled for Plagiarism". The Times Higher Education. Retrieved 1 Dec. 2008. <http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=402351>.
Barnige, Noell. "Sports Merchandising Lucrative". Savannah Morning News. Retrieved 1 Dec. 2008. <http://new.savannahnow.com/node/437745>.
Capriccioso, Rob. "Tackling Favoritism for Athletes". Inside Higher Ed.com. Retrieved 1 Dec. 2008. <http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/07/20/sports>.
Calero, Trevor. "Other Busy Students Cry Foul at Priority Registration for Athletes". The Michigan Daily. Retrieved 1 Dec. 2008 <http://www.michigandaily.com/content/2008-11-10/student-outrcy-ignited-athlete-priority-registration>.
Carty, Jim. "University of Michigan Athletes Steered to Professor". Ann Arbor News. Retrieved 1 Dec. 2008. <http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/academics/stories/index.ssf/2008/03/athletes_steered_to_prof.html>.
Cooper, Scott. "Low Revenue Hurts Teams". The Daily Collegiate Online. Retrieved 12/1/08. <http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2006/03/03-29-06tdc/03-29-06dsports-01.asp>.
Cummings, Zac. "SU Athletes Deserve Their Special Privileges". The Daily Orange. Retrieved 1 Dec. 2008 <http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/2006/11/15/Opinion/Su.Athletes.Deserve.Their.Special.Privileges-2459968.shtml>.
Dawkins, Walter. " Do Student-Athlete Rules Strike the Right Balance? ". North Jersey.com. Retrieved 1 Dec. 2008. <http://www.northjersey.com/education/twosidestoeverystory/13699507.html>.
Fiske, Edward. "Gaining Admission: Athletes Win Preference". New York Times. Retrieved 1 Dec. 2008. <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04E3D6123BF934A35752C0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2>.
Thamel, Pete. "Top Grades and No Class Time for Auburn Players ". New York Times. Retrieved 1 Dec. 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/14/sports/ncaafootball/14auburn.html?_r=1>.