I’m not sure why presidents even bother with these statements, it just makes them look like fools or dupes – or bought men:
In the days after the hazing scandal in Northwestern University’s athletics program broke this summer, school leaders homed in on this message: “Make no mistake, our student-athletes are students first,” President Michael Schill wrote in an open letter to the school community.
Former Wildcat football player Ramon Diaz says that was not his experience. …
He says student-athletes, particularly those of color, are brought to universities to win on the field, with little attention paid to their academic growth or mental health.
“To leave somebody like that is really just kind of tying both their hands behind their back,” said Diaz, who is Mexican-American. “That’s why some of these Black and brown athletes are left in shame and guilt, embarrassed.”
… Diaz got the message that he was supposed to take easy classes so he could maintain a high GPA. If his grades dipped too low, he wouldn’t be allowed to play football. The year he arrived, he remembers taking three music classes.
“There wasn’t a conversation [around] how this is going to contribute to your degree,” said Diaz, who at 6’4” still carries himself like the offensive lineman he once was. “It was the eligibility part. Those were the cymbals in the background … clanging over and over again, ‘Eligibility, eligibility.’ ”
Diaz said his coaches never asked him how classes were going or if he needed help.
Make no mistake: You don’t have to pay students.
This is what happens when you bring people in under modified academic standards. And it’s not just the “student athletes” with whom this is done, is my strong suspicion. And it leads to predictable results.
This ought to generate one of Mike Schill’s standard multi-thousand-word letters to faculty (From the AP, on “student” – athlete pay): https://apnews.com/article/college-athletes-nil-eb702d33a87bca98084ea492eccdf84c
Thanks for forwarding and raising my blood pressure 20 points. I particularly like this quote from ASU’s well-paid president, who is opposed to letting his mostly low-SES minority football players get a share of the money that their brain-damage earns for himself and his coaches in inflated salaries:
If you want the truth about big-time college sports don’t listen to the university presidents who are getting rich off it, just watch South Park: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5ZZ8bO9-Ig
The translation, after running ASU President Michael Crowe’s statement in its original Groupspeak (one can almost hear the Victorian harrumphing) through translate.google.com into English: Think of the children.