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Academics and Athletics: The Necessary Tension in Higher Education

In the same month that the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the National Mall was officially dedicated, the NCAA board of directors passed measures that set higher academic standards and increased financial support for student-athletes. I am reminded that Dr. King wrote that “education must enable a man [and woman] to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life.” I commend the NCAA board of directors for its efforts to improve the educational experience of student-athletes.

Since the passing of the Student Right-to-Know Act, the relationship between academic performance and athletic participation in intercollegiate athletics has been under intense scrutiny. In an effort to keep college athletics grounded in the mission and values of higher education, the NCAA has demonstrated its interest in improving retention and graduation rates of Division I student-athletes by enacting, in 2003, the most comprehensive academic reform effort in years.

NCAA President Mark Emmert said, “Academic reform is working. Students are better prepared when they enter college, and they are staying on track to earn their degrees.” The latest graduation success rate of 82 percent set a new high for Division I student-athletes. Dr. Walter Harrison, chair of the NCAA Committee on Academic Performance and president of the University of Hartford, stressed that the latest classroom success is a result of the groundbreaking academic reform movement of the past decade.

The graduation success that we celebrate today came in spite of the necessary tension that exists between academic and athletic goals in higher education. Much has been reported about high-profile athletes associated with revenue-generating sports (e.g., men’s basketball and football) that have significantly lower graduation rates than other student-athletes.

This discrepancy in graduation rates continues to keep athletics in the news and is further exacerbated by issues like commercialization of intercollegiate athletics, the enormous economic cost of big-time athletics, and reports of academic corruption. Few issues in higher education might be debated more, or make more headlines in the media.

The current initial eligibility standards and percentages progress toward degree benchmarks have been a source of tension for student-athlete academic support units and college advisers. It has been reported that student-athletes are consistently admitted to colleges and universities with academic backgrounds significantly lower than their cohorts. As a consequence, these student-athletes sometimes have difficulty matriculating and require a lot of academic support to meet degree benchmarks.

Therefore, academic advising personnel have to play a key role in helping these students formulate strategies to fulfill their life and career goals.

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