When many students roll out of bed for their first class of the day at noon, the majority of student athletes have already sat through three classes. While most students might enjoy a long mid-afternoon lunch or nap, student athletes rush over to their respective locker rooms to begin practice. The fact is, whether you recognize it or not, student athletes live a very different life than the average college student and just as the University orients new students to college life, they should also orient new student athletes to the life of a Division 1 athlete.
Student athletes’ daily lives vary drastically from that of your average college student. Their days revolve around endless hours spent exercising, studying film and attending meetings. They cram their schedules into a few hours in order to make room for practice. They even eat dinner at different cafeteria, the fabled John Paul Jones dining hall. However, as strenuous as their days seem, do not pity them. A similar rigor can be said for countless other students around Grounds — such as the avid musicians and scientists. That said, it is imperative to appreciate the fundamental yet significant difference between their lives and the lives of your average college student.
I argue that since student athletes live a different life, the University should implement an orientation program or class for incoming first-year student athletes in order to ease and accelerate their transition to a comfortable and safe collegiate athletic experience.
The introductory course would help incoming student athletes learn about the intricacies of life as a Division 1 athlete. Specifically the course might teach first years how to better manage their time, their studies and their sport. A drug and alcohol safety portion might be taught in which student athletes discover just how drug tests work. The class might also focus on explaining nutrition and banned substances in hopes of optimizing the student athletes’ performances. Each topic the course covered would all aim to aid the student athlete’s transition to Division 1 athletics.
Unfortunately current University policies make such a class’s existence nearly impossible. Faculty believe an unwritten policy exists which prohibits the existence of any classes meant for a special kind of students — in this case student athletes. Why? I presume such an unwritten policy exists as to avoid unwanted scandals such as “fake” class scandals at the University of North Carolina. However, while such a rule might prevent “fake” classes, it would also prevent the creation of classes aimed at educating students athletes about the next four years of their lives.
The University might also argue this rule exists to eliminate the appearance of any bias toward supporting student-athletes over other students, but I would argue the opposite. If we look at the current course catalog, we notice that several current courses restrict admission to certain students. In some cases, the requisites for admission are attainable — as in the case of higher level foreign language courses (for example you pass 2020 to take the next 3000 level course) — but in others they are not. For example, the Jazz Band Ensemble and several other music courses require auditions for admission. If you are not good enough you are refused entry into the class. On the flip side, if you do make the cut and enroll, a two credit course is added to your class schedule — credits which other students will never have access to. I ask then, how are these restrictive yet permitted classes different from the aforementioned proposed class for student athletes?
Sports represent a huge part of the University. Students love attending the games, and as we’ve seen this past week with College GameDay, so does the media. As our student athletes continue to dominate (like our men’s and women’s soccer teams making the National Championship game and our men’s basketball team rolling the competition), the media becomes more and more invested. Therefore when our student athletes make mistakes off the field, the media may easily use those incidents to negatively paint our school. Wouldn’t our school look better if student athletes drew less negative media attention? In order for this to happen, we must not only recognize the difference in student-athlete life but also seek to implement changes. An educational transitional class for first year student athletes would surely work to accomplish this goal.
Nate Menninger is an Opinion Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at n.menninger@cavalierdaily.com.
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