July 18, 2006--Get A Real Job!
All of a sudden the NY Times has discovered that big-time college athletes who need to stay academically eligible are taking meatball courses. Or worse—no courses at all. (See full story linked below.)
They “discovered” that at Auburn University where there are, can you believe it, football players “doing well” academically. Some earning academic honors without even have to go to class. Mercy!
How could that be? Didn’t the NCAA, the governing authority for college athletics, recently require higher admission and academic standards for even the sports elite Division I schools? Well, yes. But as the Times “uncovered,” again at Auburn, there appears to be a professor of sociology single-handedly undermining these valiant efforts to enforce academic quality. He appears to have made it a sub-specialty (in addition to criminology--his other specialty) to “teach” what seems to be pretty much the entire football squad. And he’s a very senior guy without an apparent gambling problem, if you were wondering. (Though I suspect he has great seats on the 50 yard line for home games.)
Of course his colleagues are “outraged.” Among other things he’s making them look bad. This professor is working so hard “teaching” so many athletes that he claims it’s equivalent to the normal work load of three and a half regular full-time professors. He breathlessly told the Times, “It was a lot of work, and I basically wore myself out.” However, he didn’t require any of the athlete-students to wear themselves out by attending class. He basically “worked” with them “independently.” What that involved is still not clear. Suffice it to say, not very much.
Actually, there are some other things his colleague professors might want to consider being outraged about. First, how hard are they working? If Professor Petee is doing the work of three-and-a-half of them, maybe they’re not doing very much to earn their comfortable salaries and nine-month work schedules. Do you know that most senior university faculty members teach just four to six courses per year? Of course, I forgot they do committee work. Sorry. That adds maybe two hours a week. Reading and grading papers, you say? Well, that’s what graduate assistants are for. Office hours to see students you are wondering? Typically that’s another two hours a week.
I raise this professorial workload reality not just to beat up on whining faculty, but to point out how hypocritical it then is for them to, in effect, criticize from on high the work life of athletes. Because that’s what it is—work. They are recruited from high school to do a job for the university, and they are paid with scholarships. In order to keep the scholarships/pay flowing they have to play on a varsity team and stay academically eligible—"complete" a certain number of “courses” each semester. That’s where good-old professor Petee comes in.
The teams they play for are businesses, big businesses, not “student activities,” and earn tens of millions of dollars a year in cash for their host institutions of higher learning. The money these athletes bring in, especially if they have a winning season, get on TV, and invited to a Bowl Game, helps pay for the salaries and the every-seven-year sabbaticals of the very professors who now have their pants in a bunch.
Athletes can be declared ineligible if they accept just one free pair of sneakers from Nike; while professors earn professional Brownie Points, and "extra remuneration" (read money), for ignoring their classes so they can do consulting.
The demands on the athletes to practice travel, and of course play makes it virtually impossible for them to successfully work two full-time jobs—being a student and being a big-time athlete. One has to give. Guess which one? After all, not every one is as adept at handling multiple full-time jobs as Professor Petee.
And tell me that the other professors at Auburn and elsewhere were unaware, until the Times article, that this was going on in their midst. In fact, many years ago I went to an Ivy League college where studies not sports were at the center of campus life. Our football team was famous for losing all of its games. Yet, even at Columbia, there was all sorts of hanky-panky going on to keep of our lunk-head athletes eligible. Even bandy-legged undergraduates such as me knew who in our classes were just being passed along. It was not a coincidence that all were either on our football or baseball team.
And an occasional rich kid whose family gave the college a million dollars to refurbish the football stadium. And to get him admitted.
They “discovered” that at Auburn University where there are, can you believe it, football players “doing well” academically. Some earning academic honors without even have to go to class. Mercy!
How could that be? Didn’t the NCAA, the governing authority for college athletics, recently require higher admission and academic standards for even the sports elite Division I schools? Well, yes. But as the Times “uncovered,” again at Auburn, there appears to be a professor of sociology single-handedly undermining these valiant efforts to enforce academic quality. He appears to have made it a sub-specialty (in addition to criminology--his other specialty) to “teach” what seems to be pretty much the entire football squad. And he’s a very senior guy without an apparent gambling problem, if you were wondering. (Though I suspect he has great seats on the 50 yard line for home games.)
Of course his colleagues are “outraged.” Among other things he’s making them look bad. This professor is working so hard “teaching” so many athletes that he claims it’s equivalent to the normal work load of three and a half regular full-time professors. He breathlessly told the Times, “It was a lot of work, and I basically wore myself out.” However, he didn’t require any of the athlete-students to wear themselves out by attending class. He basically “worked” with them “independently.” What that involved is still not clear. Suffice it to say, not very much.
Actually, there are some other things his colleague professors might want to consider being outraged about. First, how hard are they working? If Professor Petee is doing the work of three-and-a-half of them, maybe they’re not doing very much to earn their comfortable salaries and nine-month work schedules. Do you know that most senior university faculty members teach just four to six courses per year? Of course, I forgot they do committee work. Sorry. That adds maybe two hours a week. Reading and grading papers, you say? Well, that’s what graduate assistants are for. Office hours to see students you are wondering? Typically that’s another two hours a week.
I raise this professorial workload reality not just to beat up on whining faculty, but to point out how hypocritical it then is for them to, in effect, criticize from on high the work life of athletes. Because that’s what it is—work. They are recruited from high school to do a job for the university, and they are paid with scholarships. In order to keep the scholarships/pay flowing they have to play on a varsity team and stay academically eligible—"complete" a certain number of “courses” each semester. That’s where good-old professor Petee comes in.
The teams they play for are businesses, big businesses, not “student activities,” and earn tens of millions of dollars a year in cash for their host institutions of higher learning. The money these athletes bring in, especially if they have a winning season, get on TV, and invited to a Bowl Game, helps pay for the salaries and the every-seven-year sabbaticals of the very professors who now have their pants in a bunch.
Athletes can be declared ineligible if they accept just one free pair of sneakers from Nike; while professors earn professional Brownie Points, and "extra remuneration" (read money), for ignoring their classes so they can do consulting.
The demands on the athletes to practice travel, and of course play makes it virtually impossible for them to successfully work two full-time jobs—being a student and being a big-time athlete. One has to give. Guess which one? After all, not every one is as adept at handling multiple full-time jobs as Professor Petee.
And tell me that the other professors at Auburn and elsewhere were unaware, until the Times article, that this was going on in their midst. In fact, many years ago I went to an Ivy League college where studies not sports were at the center of campus life. Our football team was famous for losing all of its games. Yet, even at Columbia, there was all sorts of hanky-panky going on to keep of our lunk-head athletes eligible. Even bandy-legged undergraduates such as me knew who in our classes were just being passed along. It was not a coincidence that all were either on our football or baseball team.
And an occasional rich kid whose family gave the college a million dollars to refurbish the football stadium. And to get him admitted.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
12:30 PM
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