Athletic Scholarships – a bad thing for higher education?
Written on January 12, 2007 – 8:31 pm | by Ed Warkentin
According to this NPR piece by Frank Deford, senior writer for Sports Illustrated, Burmingham Southern decided to do “the unthinkable.” The board voted their college out of the business of athletic entertainment. Where students play sports because they want to, not because they’re paid performers. They completely dropped all athletic scholarships. This has had many fascinating results, many contrary to predictions:
More students are actually participating in athletics.
Alumni are more supportive (donations are up).
Freshman applications are up.
Campus diversity has increased.
This reminded me of a conversation that has been on going in my family for decades. My dad and uncles are, or have been, High School coaches. Athletics are important to all of them as athletes, as well. So family gatherings
Just like most family gatherings, I imagine, if there is more than one person from the same industry/field, they end up talking shop a lot at Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. At my family gatherings, discussions about education, sports, and school athletics were very common. This was actually difficult for me at times, because I was not a terribly successful athlete through school.
So, I have heard a lot about the impact of sports on schools in the U.S. I have also heard a bit about how it is done in Germany – one of my uncles lived and worked in Germany for many years (with his family).
In Germany, as I understand it, schools and sports are totally separate. The local recreation centers (city-run or YMCA-esque organizations) take care of a community’s need for athletic activity. This leaves the schools free to concentrate on academics.
It’s amazing how much sports controls our schools. If academic achievement on state standards are really that important, then why do we allow sports (most dramatically football) to severely influence our schools’ ability to focus on those standards? Sports account for an incredibly significant slice of the budget (construction, equipment, personnel, etc.). Rallies, and all the other “rah-rah stuff” meant to encourage the sports teams to be successful and build school spirit really eat away at instructional minutes.
That’s not to say that it’s all bad. It’s just that it seems that this has been way out of control for a long time. It’s kind of refreshing to see a school like Burmingham Southern de-emphasize sports, to the benefit of academics, and surprising to see that it actually had benefits related to sports, as well!
Tags: NPR
