Some UW Students Are More Equal Than Others

Back in the early 1990s I was a junior at the UW. I recall very well one of my classes that I had in Vilas Hall. My schedule worked out so that I had a bit of time before class so I'd go to the bakery in the now defunct University Square Mall and get a chocolate muffin and a cup of java. Then I'd amble next door to Vilas and find a spot in the hallway outside of the classroom where I would eat my muffin, drink the coffee, and read the student newspapers. The Badgers' star running back, Brent Moss, was in the class before mine and I'd see him everyday sitting in the back row right next to the door. I'd also see him leave class about 10 minutes early everyday.

This is what comes to mind when I hear about UW athletics and academics mixing. (Well, the moneymaking sports and academics, anyway.) Let me also add my astonishment at seeing Math 099 and English 099 in the UW timetable as well. I always presumed these classes were for athletes who somehow escaped high school without having grasped the curricula there.

With my biases in tow, I was prepared to be surprised by a recent WSJ article, "Growing emphasis on academics is helping athletes at UW-Madison". Unfortunately, it's more of what I'm used to: athletes being given special privileges and emphasizing sports over academics.

Officials laud the growing emphasis on academics, which stems in part from increased rigor in NCAA guidelines and in part from a desire for student athletes to succeed in school, thereby staying eligible to compete.

In other words, academics aren't particularly important unless poor grades impede an athlete's ability to play. This attitude has a couple corollaries: 1) Academics are unimportant as a means to other ends besides sports and 2) academics are not important in and of themselves. Most college athletes don't end up in the pros which means they'll have to find a vocation other than playing a sport. Plus this attitude degrades the idea that learning is in and of itself a virtuous pleasure.

It's also disturbing to find out that the university spent $1.4 million to help athletes with their studies when the NCAA has such abysmal standards. To wit:
Athletes must maintain a full course load and at least a 1.8 GPA to stay eligible, according to NCAA rules.

How crappy were athletes' grades that $1.4 million had to be spent, in part, to get the GPAs of some players up to a measly 1.8? Did no one at the UW care enough that athletes were sliding by with Ds that it took a change at the NCAA to for the university to get serious about this issue? (Rhetorical question.) There are two facilities where athletes can study and get tutoring but discriminate against non-athletes. You don't play sports? Well, then you're just not welcome at either Fetzer Center. Almost $24,500 of that money was spent on so-called class checkers, i.e. – people who get paid $10/hour to ensure that athletes make it to class. If you happen to be going to school to become a doctor or an engineer or a teacher, you don't get a water carrier.

Spending on academic programs for athletes at UW-Madison has more than doubled in the past 10 years — with the intent of building up the classroom performance of athletes and hopefully making it nearly impossible to fail.

Apparently failure is not an option when you help bring those TV cameras to Camp Randall and the Kohl Center. When you don't contribute to the budget of the athletic department, you don't get all the privileges or get to hang out at the exclusive facilities. Not going to class shows that you rank getting an education lower than other pursuits, whether it be sports or partying – whatever it may be. If you devalue your education and get poor grades, you deserve to fail. Perhaps failure will be a lesson itself. Drop out and come back when you're serious about school.

Chris Pressley, a UW football captain is quoted as saying, "We say to ourselves, if I weren't an athlete I would have time to do this and my grades would be better. Some guys make football their plan A. My plan A is getting a degree."

Good for him. If you play sports and can't find it in yourself to devote time to studying then you deserve to fail, not have someone wiping your ass for you.