Individual and institutional challenges facing student athletes on U.S. college campuses (original) (raw)
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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.
How College Affects Student Athletes
New Directions for Student Services, 2001
Learning that describe the desired outcomes of college for student athletes. Finally, the chapter discusses implications for policies and practices that address the critical needs of student athletes.
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.
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.
Collegiate Athletes' Challenge, Stress, and Motivation on Dual Role
Journal of Health, Sports, and Kinesiology, 2021
In the United States higher education, collegiate athletes mostly have a four-year eligibility within a five-year time frame to compete for and represent their institutions. During this period, collegiate athletes are expected to perform successfully in both academic and athletic roles so that they can maintain benefits, such as scholarships and eligibility. In other words, being a collegiate athlete brings about a multitude of pressures and stressors from handling this dual role, which include but are not limited to, scheduling classes, fatigue, financial pressure, and inflexibility of coaches (Cosh & Tully, 2015). According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2020), collegiate athletes are only allowed to participate in athletic-related activities for 20 hours per week, four hours a day in season, and eight hours per week during off season (NCAA, 2020). However, previous empirical research has indicated that Division I level collegiate athletes spend about 40 hours per week participating in sport-related activities (Smith & Hardin, 2018). Even though collegiate athletes invest tremendous time and effort in athletics, less than two percent of collegiate athletes become professional athletes after college (NCAA, 2018). For collegiate athletes, both athletic and academic performances require tremendous amounts of efforts due to their intense schedule. That is, it is convoluted for collegiate athletes to have identical motivation or reasons for attending college and participating in their sport. While collegiate athletes strive to balance in both academic and athletic responsibilities, they exhibit various types of motivation factors. According to Doupona Topic (2005), female collegiate athletes seem to be more academically motivated and less athletically motivated compared to male collegiate athletes. Also, Beamon and Bell (2006) found that African American collegiate athletes place less emphasis on academics than athletics, and they place less emphasis on education than Caucasian collegiate athletes. For African American collegiate athletes’ academic underperformance and negative psychosocial experiences can happen due to unwelcoming campus climate, inadequate academic support, and an overemphasis on their athletic roles (Beamon, 2008). As mentioned above, only a few collegiate athletes have a chance to move on to professional sport after their collegiate career. That is, majority of collegiate athletes go through a transitioning process moving out from sport. Numerous studies within the literature support that collegiate athletes often have a difficult time transitioning out of sport (Lally, 2007; Smith & Hardin, 2018). Motivation may be one of the solutions to overcome this abstruse moment. To foster effective and successful higher education environments in collegiate athletics, it is essential to understand what motivates collegiate athletes in their dual roles and how collegiate athletes set up create and implement their goals.
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.
1989
This book revie' the literature and institutional practice concerned with intercollegiate sports in higher education. Six sections cover the following topics: (1) academics and athletics (e.g., trends in research and scholarship and a framework for institutional analysis); (2) fiscal fitness: the peculiar economics of intercollegiate athletics (e.g. why expenses for college sports are so high and philanthropy and fund raising); (3) public policy and intercollegiate athletics programs (e.g., accountability, compliance, and other aspects of paying the price of nonprofit status, and colleges and the courts as illustrated by the case of television); (4) presidential leadership (e.g., 'the prescribed presidential role and problems of presidential leadership); (5) intercollegiate athletics and institutionalized administration (e.g. faculty involvement and the athletics director); and (6) educational mission, academic structure, and intercollegiate athletics policy, including recommendations for reform (e.g. structural models and institutional mission and from mission statements to self-study and accountability). Contains approximately 140 references. (SM) -ERIC Higher Education Report series. Proposals must include: 1. A detailed manuscript proposal of not more than five pages. 2. A chapter-by-chapter outline. 3. A 75-word summary to be used by several review committees for the initial screening and rating of each proposal. 4. A vita and a writing sample.