How College Affects Student Athletes (original) (raw)
Related papers
Individual and institutional challenges facing student athletes on U.S. college campuses
Student athletes face challenges of individual nature including their personal involvement in academic oriented activities, time constraints, class attendance, personal goal setting and career choices, physical and emotional fatigue, transition to college environment and academic grades, as well as external ones such as coach demands, institutional policies, discrimination; marginalization from college mainstream activities; college mission and learning environment, and eligibility demands from National Collegiate Athletic Association and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. It is prudent for college administrators to purposely create an accommodating learning environment as well as striving to integrate the student athletes into college wide activities.
2011
Few topics in higher education are more debated than intercollegiate athletics. Issues such as amateurism and professionalism, and the academic abuses of athletes and coaches, keep college athletics in the headlines. Over 400,000 student-athletes participate in intercollegiate athletics at all three Divisions within the National Collegiate Athletic Association. However, Division I receives the most criticism and attention within the media and in higher education. Most of this attention revolves around graduation rates, educational development and learning, and time commitment devoted to athletics (Crowley, 2006). Although many student-athletes are able to adjust to the rigors of higher education, a growing number of freshman student-athletes are challenged in maintaining their grade point averages (GPA) during their freshman year. This qualitative study sought to explore and identify variables that lead to academic success of freshman student-athletes. An inherent goal of this study was to examine the cognitive and noncognitive similarities and differences of freshman student-athletes. Perceptions from five sophomore student-athletes were elicited through semi-structured interviews as they reflected on their freshman year. Three male and two female studentathletes, who came from a variety of sports, served as the research participants of this iv study. The transitional experience from high school to college, unpreparedness from high school, athletic demands, and social adjustment were found to be major variables that contributed to their academic success in their freshman year. The results have implications for athletic practitioners and higher education professionals in providing a quality athletic and academic experience for their freshman athletes. v TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I.
From the playing field to the classroom: The academic challenges for NCAA Division I athletes
Journal for the Study of Sports and Athletes in Education, 2019
Student-athlete graduation rates have significantly increased in recent years, with the NCAA believing their retention and graduation rates now outpace the general college student population. Even with these promising changes, studentathletes still face a litany of academic challenges during their higher education experience. The purpose of this study is to overview these academic challenges and provide potential remedies for universities and athletic department to assist student-athletes during their educational journey. The challenges reviewed in this study include: athletic identity, admissions, first-year experience, student-athlete relationship with the athletic department, academic clustering and time constraints, stereotypes of studentathletes, and student-athlete burnout. Recommendations include improving campus connections, both inside and outside the athletic department, establishing an academic advising model for athletic advisors, and implementing a summer bridge program for incoming student-athletes.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Kern County public high school student-athletes are an underdeveloped population in California. They need an efficient transition process that is concentrated on gaining access to postsecondary education opportunities through sport participation. The proposed program aims to encourage student-athletes to focus on education for life after sports while staying motivated on high school athletics to gain college entrance and the benefits that sports participation can offer. The proposal will provided a few areas of concentration for Kern High School District (KHSD) to consider. The areas include the collaborated efforts form athletes, coaches and parents; social influences of student-athletes in high school; and fostering the correlation of athletic participation and academic success. The research has identified that each of these areas has been studied and serves as an important part of student-athlete success in high school to college transition. Through analysis it is recommended that KHSD implement a student-athlete development program. Further, the program will be unique to each high school, and standards will be made for increasing graduation and proficiency rates, and a collective effort from the “athletic triangle” will increase student-athlete postsecondary entrance. The goals and objectives will be set from the previous years results. Feedback from all public high schools will be circulated around the district to create a more comprehensive program.
The student athlete experience
New Directions for Institutional Research, 2009
This chapter discusses data sources available for studying the experience of student athletes on college campuses and highlights the need for national-level data to address complex questions concerning this population.
Student Perspectives on the College Athlete Experience
There has been an ongoing discussion of whether college athletes are exploited, and it is likely to continue considering the vast popularity of college sports. It is important to understand that exploitation of college athletes has been viewed through moral, economic, and legal realms and that the term “exploitation” begins as a moral-philosophical concept based on perspective. Researchers have looked at the exchange between the NCAA and the student-athlete attempting to determine if said exchange is “unfair” through economic and legal utilities. They provide opinion pieces, and gain the perspectives of student-athletes, university officials, and a former executive director of the NCAA. None of them however have asked the directly (and indirectly involved) group of non-athlete students. I administer a questionnaire asking students their initial opinion of how exploited they think college athletes are, and provide them with opinion statements, which are given facts about college athletes. They use my scale from “0 to 100”, “0” meaning not exploited at all, “100” meaning very exploited. My key findings are: (1) The initial opinion of college athlete exploitation suggests that students are not really sure whether college athletes are exploited are not, supporting my hypothesis that students are just concerned about the entertainment value of college sports as opposed to what takes place behind the scenes (something I call “inner-workings”), (2) Particular statements about college athletes make students believe college athletes are more or less exploited depending on the statement I give them and (3) After students receive information about college athletes and do a reassessment of their opinion on college athlete exploitation, their opinion that college athletes are exploited significantly increased.