COMMENTARY
Black athletes need faculty to care
Bv Clarence Spigner
The June 1‘t, HT41 edition of USA Ttuluvrind
the Aug r>, edition of Sports Illustrated
reported an ongoing problem vve should all
ho acute,Is aware oi: illm k student-athletes t.« a
ten don’t got (iiplomns.
Here at the 1 in’iversilv. only 2.'. peri mil ol hi.u k
male basketball players graduate after five years.
. iitupared with 80 percent ol white r:..i;>• tee-set
ball players Such dismal rar e spin ilh graduation
rates, especially in the revenue-generating sports,
are cause for concern (liven that this is still an
academic institution and riot a spurts farm, -in ap
propriate question is. W hat is the faculty s role in
ameliorating these emirarrassing graduation rules'
Several academic periodicals, suc h as Black Is
sues in Higher Education. Academe (the bulletin
,,f the Amern an Association of University Profes
sors) and The Chronicle at Higher Education,
have consistently raised the issue of fw ult\ ip /
thy regarding this issue Is fatuity paralysis a /so
endemic a! the I’niverslty ’ E\t t-pi lor a tutlH re
port tith'd Intercollegiate Athletes Committee
Acudemii I’erfnrm.ince Study, w hich evas kept s
crut apparently for public: relations reasons,
meaningful faculty involvement in sports reform
seems less than substantive.
The USA Today graduation poll and NCAA
data presented in Sports Illustrated show nation-,
wide and locally th.it far too few biar k has
kethall players graduate We should not have to
wait for the national press to inform us about our
football players -is well.
It is common knowledge that student-athletes
must spend too much valuable study time prac
ticing, traveling, playing, and recovering physi
cally and emotionally from sports. Research by
Kathleen Kllickson, a professor of psychiatry at
Ohio Stale University, found that sports, rather
than academics, sapped the enthusiasm of college
students.
Sports reformists point out that faculty apathy
has allowed athletic: departments to control and
segregate student-athletes. Murry Sportier, assoc r
ate professor of English and American Studies -it
Indiana University, has written that some athletic
personnel are allowed to operate with more au
tonomy than university faculty
Robert Atwt'll president of the \morican
Council on helm ation. has pointed out that some
facultv athletic representatives function more as
apologists and promoters lor the athletic enter
prise with choice -tickets, elt se in parking,
and free flights to awav games " We can irn lmie
free meals as well.
The contradu lions between big money sports
and the receiving of a quality ediu ation are well
known to facultv, stall and students. In response,
.it least student leaders at the University have tak
i'ii it upon themselves to evaluate the extent to
which academii integrity is being maintained
here.
Tor example In Max 1‘tati. Ron Larsen, a grad
uate student in sociology, conducted research on
the. retention of minority students In a report ti
ded Summitry of the Report on Mm, inn Students
nt the I 'niversity of Oregon, Larsen Imind two
thirds of the University's black students were
male, and about a third ol all bla< k students ivere
athletes So much for the University's self serving
claims nfrout increasing diversity
In January IS*(O'. ASl.'t) I’rosulent Andy l i-irk
undertook Ills own investigation nt slisdent-ath
ietes After repeated stonewalling Iron) University
administrators, Clark brought in sports \n< mlogist
Harry Kdwards for a series of campus lecture ,
Local television station KT./.I taped an exclusive
interview with Ldwurds. hut to rnv knowledgi',
that interview was never aired
This year. ASUO student leaders Brian Hoop
Trie Ward. Bobby Leo and others spent most ol
spring and summer quarters, and now lull, re
searching tn the University archives for informa
lion on race- and gender specific student-athlete
graduation rates Larsen, (dark and these present
student leaders are doing work the University ad
ministrators should he doing1
if students can give their valuable time and do
vote such physical and emotional labor on behalf
ol student-athletes, where is the faculty '' Are stu
dents more concerned about academii integrity
than we are?
Citron, e Spigrter is an assistant professor in the
Department of School and Community Health
and former chairman of the l 'Diversity's Council
for Minority education.
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THE FAR SIDE
By GARY LARSON
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Omens (and their meanings)