News
Coalition investigates athletes sliding through
Looking for a print version?
Simply use your browser’s ‘Print’ command and a printer-friendly document will be generated automatically.
Also by Nicole Bartz:
- Have the worst landlord? Tell Student Tenant Union (April 16, 2008)
- Coalition investigates athletes sliding through (April 10, 2008)
- City to flip switch for energy 'Hour' (March 28, 2008)
- Officials utilize Facebook in investigations (March 5, 2008)
Sharing tools:
E-mail this article:
A faculty-led athletics coalition asked several colleges and universities this week to investigate whether their athletes are clustered in easy majors and taking snap courses.
University of Wisconsin athletics and admissions officials said special privileges are not a concern for the UW Athletics department.
The announcement by the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics comes in response to allegations that athletes at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor are steered into independent-study courses where some professors give them an easy pass.
Tom Reason, associate director of admissions, said admissions for student athletes does not differ significantly from regular students.
Though many factors are taken into account in review of athletes’ application, academics are still the No. 1 priority, Reason said.
Reason added there are no special programs or courses offered to student athletes, and they are challenged at the same level of the rest of the student body.
“If there was research done on exactly what majors athletes declare, the research would show that athletes migrate towards broad liberal arts majors because there is flexibility in those majors,” Reason said.
According to Reason, there have been no problems with student athletes and the classes they take.
“There are no ‘gimmes’ here,” he added.
David McDonald, former chair of the Athletic Board, said a study released years ago looking at different majors athletes declare at Division I revealed sociology was one of the most popular majors at UW.
“But we also need to take into account that the UW sociology department is one of the leading sociology departments in the country,” McDonald said.
According to McDonald, other reasons for student athletes’ interest in certain subjects could be popular professors or courses.
“There is a certain level of assumption that athletes take courses for one only reason, but we should not cast any false accusations before asking them why they take the courses that they do,” McDonald added. “I am positive there are a number of reasons.”
2 Comments | Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Herald Blogs
The Beat Goes On
Brother Ali makes an ‘Exclusive’ stop
Muckrakers
Report: Barrett to make decision by the end of the week
Extra Points
Top Classified Ads (view all)
HOUSES FOR Fall 2010. All houses are on W Dayton or N Bassett. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 bedrooms. All have parking. madisoncampusrentals.com
521 W Dayton 4BR/2BA. Marble showers, dishwasher, completely updated! madisoncampusrentals.com
1, 2, or 3 bedroom apartment available for spring 2010. meltzer@wisc.edu if you are interested!
Athletes at this school take certain courses because their athletic department tutors either wrote the book, T.A the course, or teach the course. If I had the option of taking a class where I got the same help as everyone else OR a class where the answers were force fed to me I’d ride down easy street too!
Plain and simple… the athletes at UW-Madison are coddled from day 1. They receive special treatment, full-time tutors and a myriad of other things to “make them successful.” Fortunately for the rest of the hard-working student body, we’ll actually have gained some knowledge and skills while here that we can use in getting jobs and leading a productive life. While many (not all) of the athletes will leave here with little marketable abilities and their pseudo-celebrity status will be over.