"Defending Academic Integrity in the Face of Commercialized College Sport"
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endorse the following proposals as a first step toward closing the ever-widening gap between athletics and education:
1. Retire the term "student-athlete."
This proposal affirms that athletes are an integral part of the student body. There is no more need to call them
student-athletes than there is to call members of the marching band student-band members. The term student-athlete was
created by the NCAA in the 1950s to deflect the threat that its newly implemented athletic scholarship policy might lead
Workers Compensation Boards to view athletes as paid employees. The words faculty use to refer to athletes should not be
determined by the public relations needs of the NCAA. Replacing the term with "student" or "college athlete" in university
documents is an action faculty can take immediately.
2. Make the location and control of academic counseling and support services for athletes the same as for
all students.
The proposal further reinforces the notion that athletes are students and should be integrated into the general student body.
Separate athletic counseling centers have been spawned by the same "student-athlete" philosophy the Drake Group
rejects. The goal of academic counseling is education not athletic eligibility. This goal cannot be accomplished in a setting
that is compromised by pressure to produce winning athletic teams. Faculty Senates can and should act to ensure equal
access to education for all students.
3. Establish university policies that emphasize the importance of class attendance for all students and
ensure that the scheduling of athletic contests not conflict with class attendance.
To protect the athletes' right to have equal access to educational opportunities, faculty need to enforce the policy that class
attendance should take priority over athletic participation. Whenever there are scheduling conflicts between sports and
course requirements, faculty members have a professional responsibility to enforce attendance policies that support quality
instruction. In some instances, the problem arises because faculty, rather than athletic personnel, does not demand that
students attend class. Faculty Senates can and should require faculty to establish attendance policies that treat all students
equally.
4. Replace one-year renewable scholarships with need-based financial aid (or) with multi-year athletic
scholarships that extend to graduation (five year maximum).
As long as coaches and athletics directors can use factors related to athletics to determine whether financial aid will be
renewed, athletes are under considerable pressure to make sports their main priority. This highlights the inherent hypocrisy
in the term "athletic scholarship," a term that should be related to educational opportunities. To ensure that education
remains the priority, renewal of athletic scholarships should be unrelated to athletic performance or athletic scholarships
themselves replaced with educational grants awarded on the basis of financial need. In either case, universities should be
committed to athletes as students whose value to the university exceeds their role in athletics. The Big Ten Conference and
the Knight Foundation have listed the creation of multi-year scholarships among possible reform measures they could
support.
5. Require students to maintain a cumulative grade point average of 2.0 each semester to continue
participation in intercollegiate athletics.
Students whose cumulative grade point average falls below 2.0 in any given semester need to give immediate attention to
academic performance. Some will argue that this is an unfair standard because the standard for student academic eligibility
on some campuses may be less than a cumulative 2.0 GPA in a specified semester. given the steady decline in graduation
rates for athletes in the revenue- producing sports (rates that declined despite the rise of multi-million dollar academic
support units) and the acknowledged stressors on the lives of athletes, this measure would provide a safety net for those
athletes who are most academically at risk.
6. Ensure that universities provide accountability of trustees, administrators, and faculty by public
disclosure of such things as a student's academic major, academic advisor, courses listed by academic
major, general education requirements, and electives, course GPA and instructor.
No individual student grades would be disclosed. Much of the academic fraud that has come to be associated with college
athletics could be eliminated if information on how we educate students were publicly disclosed. Disclosure is not about
student behavior-- it is about institutional behavior. Academic evidence of the quality of education being given athletes will
enable faculty and administrators to monitor grade inflation and the educational practices that affect the quality of the
institution's degree. A first step would be to disclose, on a yearly basis, the majors taken by college athletes and the average
aggregate grades of students enrolled in those and other majors. For the purposes of clarification, the Drake Group is not
advocating that any individual records of athletes be revealed nor is there an intention to "blame" athletes for this situation.
Rather, our purpose is to expose areas within the academy where the so-called preferential treatment of athletes (i.e.,
advisement into bogus or easy courses, manipulation of grades) actually constitutes a denial of equitable access to
educational opportunity.
7. Require one year in residency before an athlete can participate in intercollegiate sport. This rule would
apply to transfer students as well as to freshman.
Requiring one year of residency before playing sports puts the decision on who will represent the institution on the playing
field clearly in the hands of the faculty because eligibility would be determined by success in the classroom rather than by
entrance exams. Keeping freshmen out of varsity competition until they have completed one year of residency would help
them to make the often difficult transition to college life without the distractions of sport when pursued as commercial
entertainment. A one-year residency rule would also discourage coaches from recruiting freshmen and junior college
players as a quick fix to turn around a losing program.