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Athletes at the University are under a lot of pressure to perform on
the field. In recent times, they have also been under pressure to
perform in the classroom, due to such problems as the bogus
credits scandal and the reputation they have for taking the "Mickey
n . .. .. j
Photos by Bob Bakor
Mouse" courses. Athletic counselor Barbara Nlcholls says those
who say athletic performers have it made aren't always right. Being
a college athlete is like having two full-time jobs . she says, and
“How can you say that this lacks discipline?"
Erasing the dumb jock image
By MARK JOHNSON
Of the Emerald
Q — How many football
players does it take to make
popcorn?
A — Five One to hold the pan,
and four to shake the stove
For as long as there's been
sport, there’s been the stereo
type of the dumb jock ” You
know, the burly halfback who
can thread his way through
eleven would-be tacklers, yet
stumble over three-syllable
words
For many, that label would
seem to be appropriate at
Oregon, where recent
academic problems involving
athletes have surfaced Two
basketball players have been
declared ineligible for the
1981-82 season already,and
one football player had prob
lems gaining eligibility after he
was found to have insufficient
credits
And of course, Oregon was
one of five Pacific 10 Confer
ence schools implicated in the
infamous “Bogus Credits"
scandal
So beyond the query asked at
the beginning of this story, a
more pertinent question sur
faces Is the label of athlete"
becoming more and more em
barrassing to own9
One person who has an ex
perienced ear listening to
student-athlete problems is
Barbara Nicholls, the Universi
ty's student-athlete academic
counselor Nicholls, a former
English instructor at the Univer
sity, has arranged an advising
program which includes help
with scheduling and tutors to
compliment other resources
such as study halls
"My position at the Universi
ty," said Nicholls,"is a result of a
committee of faculty, students,
student-athletes and the com
munity in response to the com
plaints of athletes, black ath
letes in particular, who wanted
to ensure they were getting a
proper education I'm here to
see that the demands of sport
don't overbalance eflypation.
The University feels a strong
commitment to its athletes "
Nicholls services are separ
ated from the athletic depart
ment Money provided for tutor
ing is transferred from athletic
funds, and then managed
independent of athletic depart
ment control Tutors are as
signed by Nicholls to student
athletes without regard to ath
letic prowess," according to Ni
cholls
Nicholls, who says that she
"was once anti-athlete and cer
tainly anti-athletic department,"
sees a stereotype stamped on
student-athletes
"Some people overidealize
athletes and others tend to put
them down, but both views are
wrong Academically there is as
much variety among the
students as the athletes, who
are not much different from the
norm ”
According to Nicholls, stats
on GPA and success rates of
athletes are hard to culminate
because a true definition of
what constitutes an athlete does
not exist But she maintains that
in past studies, athletes showed
a slightly higher GPA than the
student body as a whole
An academic progress study
under the direction of Robert
Bowlin, Dean of Students,
compiled data on all male ath
letes from the fall of 1975
through the fall of 1979 Bowlin
cautions that the study's
findings are only preliminary
and incomplete because data
on the rest of the student body
has yet to be compiled
In drawing some preliminary
conclusions, it was found.that in
those four years studied it took
the average graduate 4 91 years
to complete requirements while
the athletes that graduated took
an average of 4 58 years
Graduates of every sport but
one, on the average, took less
time to graduate than did their
fellow undergraduate students
Bowlin also points to several
articles written from studies
which indicate student-athletes
are slightly more successful
In one article, by Jerry Uhr
hammer on a 1967 study, it was
shown that a greater percen
tage of athletes were above a
predicted GPA of between 17
and 2 99 than the non-athletes
Some teams such as the men's
tennis and gymnastics team
have solid reputations for
academic excellence
Bowlin said that student-ath
letes usually do better because
they are "reasonably competi
tive people who learn to use
their time effectively and get the
additional help, such as tutors "
"You would expect them to
do better - motivation is a key
factor," Bowlin said
But like Nicholls, Bowlin
seems more content to say that
"student-athletes do not differ
that much from the general
student body," and dumb jock
stereotypes are labeled to ath
letes because "with bad pub
licity its easy to jump to conclu
sions ”
Nicholls suspects the only
general difference between the
academic success of student
athletes and the student body is
that, "athletes parallel a normal
Continued on Page 7B