Bob Gross writes: > What is right? As a faculty member, I never thought I'd feel that > standards should be "bent" for admitting athletes, but that is exactly how I > have come to feel. Although an academic education should be top priority at > any College or University, there are other important aspects as well, > including sports. Student athletes contribute the their schools in important > ways that non-athletes do not. > Once a student athlete is admitted, he or she should be expected to take a > course load that any other student could take (including non-standard > "majors") and be expected to perform well. If that premise is understood, > then any coach would be foolish to recruit a player that might be great for > the team, but would flunk out. > [log in to unmask] I couldn't agree more. Admissions at top schools frequently comes down to non-academic criteria that separates a candidate from the rest of the pack. This could include having a special skill (playing guitar while standing on your head :-), having spent a significant amount of time in a foreign country, or having played a varsity sport. IMHO, the capability to contribute to a schools varsity program should be considered very highly as a specialty skill. Coaches at Bowdoin used to rate potential students for admission purposes: +1 student can contribute on a JV level +2 student can contribute on a varsity level +3 student can contribute immediately on a varsity level Bowdoin has since limited the rating to either +1 or 0 and is considering doing away with ranking altogether in order to downplay athletics. I think that would be a bad move, as a good sports team (hockey is Bowdoin's only money sport) brings in revenue from tickets as well as from increased alumni contributions. This increased revenue can help enrich the academic environment for all students. Against popular opinion, athletes can also be good students. -- Pete -- +-------+ Peter J. Kester | \ INTERNET: [log in to unmask] | / BITNET: pjk2v@virginia +-------+ UUCP: ...!uunet!virginia!uvacs!pjk2v | / |+ | \