We seem to have accepted the locution “student-athlete” in the academy, though all too often I think we really mean “athlete-student.” all too often. In selective institutions we make special provisions to ensure that a requisite number and variety of student-athletes are admitted — quarterbacks, point guards, pole vaulters, strokes, mid-fielders, and the like. The sports teams cannot do without them, and for a variety of reasons (in my view, some better than others) we find ways to admit them that seem consistent with our academic standards and dignity.
We usually justify this affirmative action policy with reference to the values of commitment, hard work, sportsmanship and teamwork that will stand our students well in life after graduation. And I agree that these are important values.
But what about our other teams? Surely sports are not the only activity in which these values can be learned. The other teams, however, are taken for granted, possibly because they do not seem to require rhetorical overkill to justify them. Still, we should remember that they exist, and that they serve our students in equally important ways. I am thinking of the debate team, the modern dance team, the community-service team — and my personal favorite, the university orchestra.
Think about it for a moment. The orchestra conductor recruits special-teams players just as intensely as the football coach, but instead of seeking punters and wide receivers, he is on the lookout for piccolos and contrabassoons (scarcer than long snappers, for sure). The orchestra engages in team practices throughout the year (like crew, not football), and the individual players practice daily (their counterpart to the weight room?).
They need to play skillfully and together, and to perform under the pressure of public scrutiny, though to be sure they get two performances of each program to get it right. And quite a few fans come to cheer for them (and frequently pay for the privilege). Shouldn’t we give varsity letters for orchestra (and the other non-sports teams)? Well, I haven’t seen a letter sweater on a campus in a long time, but you know what I mean.
My wife and I attended a championship performance by our team, the Princeton University Orchestra, brilliantly coached and conducted by Maestro Michael Pratt, last weekend. The musical among you will understand the ambition of their performance if I tell you that they played Mahler’s Ninth symphony, one of the longest and most difficult in the repertoire. The first-desk players were all students (there were four or five adult ringers, mostly double bass players), who played their exposed parts with skill and confidence. And the string playing at the end of the fourth movement (some of you will know what I mean) was to die for.
Maestro Pratt introduced the 17 seniors who had played for the orchestra for all four years at Princeton. Of them, only one had majored in music. The other majors ranged from chemistry, molecular biology and mathematics to operations research, religion and psychology. My senior advisee, Sarah Vander Ploeg, a Marshall Scholarship winner, is principally a lyric soprano but plays viola in the orchestra and majors in public policy. I wonder how many other teams can boast such academic and intellectual range, not to mention consistent excellence?
Go team!
