EVERY year as the NCAA men's basketball tournament rolls around, a nationwide frenzy erupts as children, college students and adults alike gather around their television sets in eager anticipation, wondering - as the competition slowly narrows - which of their beloved teams will make the trip to the Final Four, or even (God willing), the championship game.
With the championship game and the chaos of the past few weeks still fresh on our minds, it's time to step back and ask ourselves a very important question: What the heck are we doing? While no one can deny the value of a little friendly competition, in all of the madness surrounding college basketball, our values often become skewed. We forget the real purpose of our universities: education.
On March 30, all University students received an e-mail informing them of "Basketball Student Appreciation Day," set to take place April 2. Pete Gillen, men's head coach and author of this e-mail, stated that the event would be "a chance for [the players and coaches] to show [their] appreciation for the students." While Gillen had good intentions, it should be noted that this event did not in fact show appreciation for the students, but rather served only to reinforce a sentiment of athlete superiority that pervades Grounds. This isn't to suggest that the athletes themselves feel that they are superior, but rather that the structure of the event implies that this is the reality.
The language used in the e-mail, despite the fact that it may be intended to be innocuous, betrays an underlying sentiment of athletic elitism. The phrase that describes part of the appreciation ceremony as "players and coaches mingling with students" contains the subtle assumption of superiority of athletes who, as Gillen's statement ignores, are students themselves.
Even more offensive is the portion of the letter that describes the grand prize awarded at the appreciation ceremony, "a pre-game meal with the team next season." In other words, the student fortunate enough to win this raffle will be permitted to temporarily reside within the presence of the much esteemed Men's Basketball Team. This "prize," though doubtlessly well-intentioned, serves only blatantly to display the way in which these individuals are perceived as being the average student.
While this pervasive sense of athletic supremacy is bothersome, the concrete privileges that are awarded to athletes by the University itself are far more disturbing. The Registrar's Office Web page blatantly proclaims that athletes of certain - and seemingly arbitrarily chosen - sports are given priority course registration. This consists of being given the first possible registration time slot, which is also awarded to Rodman and Echols scholars. While many will argue that priority registration is needed to help athletes work around their practice schedules, this defense is defeated when we note that many sports, including the women's - yet not men's - soccer and lacrosse teams, in addition to many others, aren't granted this benefit for the fall semester. When contacted on the issue of why certain sports are given priority registration over others, Associate Provost for Academic Support and Classroom Management Shirley Menaker could not be reached for comment.
In light of this knowledge, it becomes obvious that certain fortunate sports teams are given priority registration merely as a favor from the University. It's entirely unfair that athletes should be given academic privilege at all, let alone privilege equal to that awarded students for exceptional academic performance. Rodman and Echols scholars have earned their academic status through hard academic work. To give some students any kind of educational privilege merely because they can throw a ball through a hoop is absurd and is blatantly unfair to those of us "commoners" who are forced to register the fair way - according to our academic status.
We're all intelligent individuals at this University. It's ludicrous that we persist in deifying athletes. This was blatantly apparent at the Appreciation Day, as many misguided students lined up to receive autographs - from their fellow students. And to top it all off, many of us who see through this objectification still tolerate it. We all need to remind ourselves that these athletes are just students themselves, and should be taken down from the pedestal that this University has put them on.
It would be foolish to deny that athletics such as basketball have a place at the University. These sports, when successful, bring a great deal of prestige - not to mention money - to the school, provide entertainment for fans and encourage a sense of camaraderie within the student body. However, while athletics play a significant role at the University, it's a supplementary one. No one will assert that our athletes are not talented or that they should not be recognized for their skill. But within an institution whose primary purpose is to educate its members, we need to realign our values, shift focus to academic achievements and see athletics for what they are: extracurricular activities.
(Laura Parcells is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.)
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