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U. of Bahrain Reportedly Requires Students to Sign Pro-Government Pledges

May 16, 2011, 3:55 pm

The University of Bahrain is requiring students to sign pledges of support for the government of King Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa, reports the Los Angeles Times. According to the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, students who don’t sign may have to leave the institution. In addition, the university has installed metal detectors and surveillance cameras on the campus, and has stationed security guards there, says the Times, citing an opposition newspaper in Bahrain.

Many of the students who joined antigovernment demonstrations in Bahrain have been suspended. Some academics who have supported the protests have been fired or detained.

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  • jeangoodwin

    Never reject yourself;  let others have that pleasure.  Go for it!

  • bhawkins29

    Thanks for sharing! I too am starting to struggle with this decision. It is helpful to know others have the same misgivings and I look forward to hearing any advice sent your way.

  • sapell7226

    i would just go through the process to for the adrenaline rush .. and renew my abilities at interviewing.If they offer you the position you still have the alternative of saying no..if you don’t get it you still would have had an opportunity to dust up your resume and interview skills for the next big one. 
     if you don’t  give it a try there will always be that nagging : could have, should have, would have…..

  • sannavarjula

    I agree. It helps if one looks at it from a different angle – what would I regret more – applying for the position or not applying for it.

  • bussesob

    Go through the process, but do it at several schools. If you can get an interview beforehand at another school, that will be great practice if you are selected for an interview at your choice institution. Good luck!

  • nanovic

    This is not a very persuasive argument. It should not be up to the coach to decide whether a player’s attitude is good enough to  merit a four-year scholarship.  All recruits should be guaranteed a four-year scholarship that should only be revocable on the grounds of university disciplinary action.  What’s really going on here is that wealthy programs like Alabama like to oversign prospects as a way to maintain strong classes.  When one player loses his scholarship, it is suddenly “convenient” for another player to fill the void.  As a result, the football powers above have shockingly low graduation rates.  In contrast, programs like Notre Dame that guarantee 4-year scholarships have very high graduation rates.  Just look at the statistics.

  • bbr123

    Schools want total control over who to keep and those that
    are let go. If you play for a school with decent morals and you act right, they
    treat you with respect. Again, this puts the control in the school’s hands. All
    schools will not do the right thing even for a good kid.

     

     This is similar to
    the at-will employment policy in place for most college and university
    administrators. Related to college athletics and higher education
    administrators, they are asked for a lot and not provided with much security. The
    head coach and college/university president have the big contract with a huge
    escape/dismissal clause.

     

    Both systems encourage people to look out for themselves. For
    administrators it means taking the next big promotion at another institution.
    For athletes it means cutting corners or breaking rules at times for self gain.

     

  • kgodwin

    It’s not just about attitude.  It’s also about behavior.  Bad behavior is typically accompanied by a bad attitude, but a bad attitude doesn’t always lead to bad behavior.  I assume institutions have the capability to add behavior clauses to multi-year scholarships.  Perhaps I’m just jaded, but I’m sure that the policies governing with-cause removal of scholarships will be unequally applied (if you are a “star”, you’ll get considerably more latitude than a benchwarmer).  

  • pianiste

    “…are hard-headed, and threaten the chemistry of the team”–those are the weasel words. An athlete can have a good work ethic, hit the books, stay uninjured, and still “threaten the chemistry of the team” just because he (we’re talking football here) doesn’t fit in the system and his continued presence on the roster can “threaten the chemistry of the team,” i.e., its ability to win.

    Boy, does brutus do a great job of ripping the remaining shreds of the mask of “student-athlete,” “amateurism,” etc., from football programs such as Alabama’s. In spite of trying mightily to obfuscate the issue, brutus makes it perfectly clear that football programs such as Alabama’s are de facto professional sports business which want to be able to–let’s not mince words–fire–unproductive players, just like the pro leagues do. Betcha somebody in the Alabama athletic department right now, is muttering, “Et tu, Brute?”

  • ggurney

    Favoring or opposing a multiyear scholarship is predicated upon the question of whether the contract entered into with the institution is about the education or employment of the athlete.  Big, wealthy athletic programs like my own at Oklahoma want to keep the control of the athlete in the hands of the coaches.  Their arguments about caring for the well being and education of the athletes is a cleverly constructed lie.  Either treat athletes as students by offering them binding long term scholarships or treat them as employees and PAY them. Players can’t be self-advocates for their own well being if they are owned by the coaches and without the guarantee of financial aid.  I applaud NCAA’s Mark Emmert’s attempt to straighten out the ambigous mess in big time college sport, but the celebrity coach lobby and their athletic director spokesmen make it highly unlikely to affect meaningful reform.

  • Socratease2

    I am all for student-athletes getting 4 years of academic scholarship aid but it is absurd to say that ther can’t be conditions attached. What about the world you live in comes without contractual obligations and responsibilities? If they hold up there end of the bargain, they will be retained. Should employers guarantee 5 years of assured employment to new hires regardless of how they perform?

    Should it be up to a student-athlete to decide that he or she will do whatever they want since they are guaranteed a 4 year scholarship? Since they have that in the bank, why bother to come to practice or show up for weights at 6 AM or stay in shape over the summer?  Why can’t a scholarship have conditions?  Most do. The fact is that if a student-athlete does follow team rules and maintains academic eligibility then he or she will always be renewed. It is not that complicated. Most ADs expouse the principle of “you brought them here, you graduate them.” Are there exceptions that prove the rule, sure, but we aren’t discussing the cases 3 standard deviation points from the mean. Comparing Alabama and Notre Dame and saying it is the scholarships that make the diffenece in grad rates misses about 15 intervening variables that make that assertion perlious at best. Of course a coach will encourage someone to transfer if the student  wants more playing time or feels the team system is not for them. There are no guarantees in life and certainly not in sports. And, in case anyone has missed this point, if a student were to have a scholarship non-renewed, he or she is not suspended from school, they remain a student and can continue to work towards graduation. That is the point of being in school, right? Should they also be guaranteed a Stafford loan regardless of their parents income?

  • Socratease2

    Well then, I guess a weasel is known for telling the truth. You can’t fire someone if they are not an employee and did you read what Brutus actually wrote? Saying that someone can be removed from the team for “violating team rules” is the opposite of obfuscation, it is about as clear a statement of reality  that I can think of.  Would you not be removed from your job if you violate workplace rules? Student-athletes sign a contract saying they will abide by team rules and those contracts specify the consequences for not following those rules. How much more black and white does it need to be? And I am not going to pinpoint at what stage a student’s behavior is “disruptive” to team solidarity and focus but it is not hard to imagine at the extremes. Anyone who has played competitive team sports knows that group loyalty, trust  and support are essential to team function. Are you saying that a student who tests positive for drugs and is acting aggressively towards teammates should keep his scholarship for 4 years when he signed a contract that he would not use drugs? Athletic depts are very aware of the possibility that an unethical coach could try to get a scholarship back and run someone off the team. There are safeguards against such unilateral actions within the athletic dept and at the university administration level. At my school, a girl on the women’s tennis team voluntarily quit the team, I repeat, completely volunitarily, and she appealed to the university to keep her scholarship and won. The reason? She would have stayed on the team but practice times were inconvenient for her. So, people need to disabuse themselves of the notion that these “kids” are being sold a bill of goods and then tossed on the street. In any case, coaches can use students and students can use coaches, just as happens with contractual relationships outside campus.

  • brutus

    If those on academic scholarship choose to party vs. study, thus dropping their gpa………do they keep their scholarship?  Is there a double standard?   Why not give them 4yr scholarships? As for pianiste………..coaches only dismiss from teams, not universities. The athlete is free to continue his education, just not on the university’s dime. When I say “…threaten the chemistry of the team,” I am not referring to kids like you mentioned. One has to really screw up in order to be dismissed from Bama’s team. That’s a concrete fact that doesn’t come from a newspaper, blog, or espn report.

  • Socratease2

    I strongly disagree that coaches can unilaterally and without consequence act as “kangaroo courts” and simply pull scholarships based on some minor or trumped up “rules violation” charge. I don’t think you understand the NCAA rules or the layers of administrative attention and active athletic compliance dept  regulation of scholarships  required at each institution. Maybe in 1968 coaches could just tell you to get the hell off the team and then take your money and girlfriend away but despite the growth of money and greed in the industry, there has been an equal growth in oversight of “institutional control.”  Yes, students leave teams for many reasons, they become permanently injured, they decide to go someplace where they will get more playing time, there is a coaching change and current players don’t “fit” the new coach’s system so they leave to go elsewhere, they fail drug tests, they become academically ineligible, etc. Do coaches encourage players to leave for a variety of reasons, of course they do and, yes, some of those reasons are self-serving but, once again, you are just wrong if you claim that a coach can just non-renew a student’s academic scholarship for any trivial reason and not be questioned. I know you want that to be true. From what you say, you do not appear to have had any recent access to the inner workings of an athletic department. But if you can document that these “firings” are taking place in the way you indicate, please give us the source.

  • tannerlibrary

    Hello,
    I am on break and will return to Tanner on Monday, March 5, but Tanner is open from 8:00 a.m. – noon the week of February 27 – March 2.
    If you have any reference questions and need immediate assistance, please contact Ask a Librarian at the University Library.
    http://www.lib.umich.edu/ask-librarian

    If you have questions about the Department of Philosophy, please e-mail the staff : philosophy.staff@umich.edu

    Thanks!

    Molly

    Molly Mahony, M.L.S.
    Tanner Philosophy Librarian
    mcmahony@umich.edu

  • Socratease2

    But no contract is without rules, as it stands now academic scholarships are renewed annually in July. If a student-athlete has abided by the terms of the scholarship and regardless of the student’s relative contribution to the team’s athletic success, the contract is renewed. Also, regardless of whether  or not a student were to have a 4 year scholarship, it is still theirs to maintain or lose, right? Let’s say I  have a 4 year scholarship but if the contract says a DUI is reason for team dismissal then I can be kicked off the team for drunk driving, no? Or am I kicked off the team, keep my scholarship and now drink and drive freely? Why should there be a 4 year guarantee? Why does participation in athletics equal a four year free ride on tuition? I think it is somewhat disengenuous to say that they need to be treated as either employees or students and nothing in between. That just ignores the fact we have to reconcile that sports and academics at universities mix a bit like oil and water. For some, athletics might get them in the door but are we more concerned about whether they get to play subsidized football for four years or whether they find a meaningful major and graduate. These student-athletes are still human for the most part and can survive  like the other 25,000 students on campus who never had a sports security blanket to start with. If a player loses his or her scholarship for a clearly understood and contractual reason then they can get a Pell Grant, a Stafford Loan or find another way to finish their education. The coach doesn’t dismiss them from school. Anyway, advocating paying student-athletes is another way of advocating the end of college sports, which is fine I guess. But, how about taking all the money away from the greedy adults and leave the kids alone? 

  • pianiste

    Well, here’s one. And it went public only because the player sued. There are probably a lot of players whose year-to-year scholarships cause them to be “fired” for no other reason than to free up a scholarship for another recruit, and who just walk away with their heads down.

    http://www.chron.com/sports/rice/article/Former-Rice-football-player-sues-NCAA-over-1706873.php

    I mean, why does Socratease2 think that the multi-year scholarship was proposed, and why does Socratease2 think that what the CHE calls “a surprising number” of wealthy football programs opposed it?

    To repeat: D-I “revenue sports” are a billion-dollar sports-entertainment business with the thinnest possible veneer of legitimacy in regard to higher
    education. Sadly, we’ve gotten used to the business (“I want my Thursday
    night ESPN game now!”), but the veneer is more and more an embarrassment.

    Socratease2, one notices, doesn’t dispute that.

  • tannerlibrary

    Hello,
    I am on break and will return to Tanner on Monday, March 5, but Tanner is open from 8:00 a.m. – noon the week of February 27 – March 2.
    If you have any reference questions and need immediate assistance, please contact Ask a Librarian at the University Library.
    http://www.lib.umich.edu/ask-librarian

    If you have questions about the Department of Philosophy, please e-mail the staff : philosophy.staff@umich.edu

    Thanks!

    Molly

    Molly Mahony, M.L.S.
    Tanner Philosophy Librarian
    mcmahony@umich.edu

  • pianiste

    Molly,

         We can’t go on meeting this way.

              — pianiste
     

  • tannerlibrary

    Hello,
    I am on break and will return to Tanner on Monday, March 5, but Tanner is open from 8:00 a.m. – noon the week of February 27 – March 2.
    If you have any reference questions and need immediate assistance, please contact Ask a Librarian at the University Library.
    http://www.lib.umich.edu/ask-librarian

    If you have questions about the Department of Philosophy, please e-mail the staff : philosophy.staff@umich.edu

    Thanks!

    Molly

    Molly Mahony, M.L.S.
    Tanner Philosophy Librarian
    mcmahony@umich.edu

  • Socratease2

    Jeez, give me time to reply, believe me I challenge much of what you wrote down below but for some reason there is no “reply” on your post. Anyway, no one is saying that every institution is doing everything perfectly, neither is our government, our postal system, our immigration system, and on it goes. You could only find one case study to trot out? I would think you could find more. But exceptions aren’t the point, what is the overall record on scholarship renewal? The reasons for opposing the 4 year scholarship go well beyond a simplistic “we own these pieces of meat.”  I said it before, one year renewable (with all the contractual caveats that specify conditions for non-renewal) is barely different than a 4 year scholarship that can be revoked at any time based on those same conditions). This is not the biggest problem with college sports by a long shot. Why do you care so much that they have 4 years of playing time, isn’t the point whether they stay in school and graduate? That has no connection to football, they can get loans just like all other students. Why isn’t the education piece being mentioned, especially by people who don’t care about sports? And, in my opinion, the sturm and drang devoted to a topic should have some direct correlation with real world significance and social importance. I would check out the subjects on A-1 page of the newspaper first for topics to explore.

  • tannerlibrary

    Hello,
    I am on break and will return to Tanner on Monday, March 5, but Tanner is open from 8:00 a.m. – noon the week of February 27 – March 2.
    If you have any reference questions and need immediate assistance, please contact Ask a Librarian at the University Library.
    http://www.lib.umich.edu/ask-librarian

    If you have questions about the Department of Philosophy, please e-mail the staff : philosophy.staff@umich.edu

    Thanks!

    Molly

    Molly Mahony, M.L.S.
    Tanner Philosophy Librarian
    mcmahony@umich.edu

  • Socratease2

    Who is Molly and why does her automatic out of office message always come up? Who has auto reply to a forum like this?

    Oh, I wanted to share one thing, I have actually seen results from a few different D-1 schools concerning surveys on the 4 year scholarship question. The respondents were from the schools’  Student-Athlete Advisory Councils (kind of like student government with 2 members from each team). So these are actual student athletes playing right now and the results were very mixed, many student-athletes thought the 4 year scholarship would have a negative impact on motivation and performance of their teammates. I don’t think they would have been negative towards the 4 year plan if they thought the 1 year renewable was patently unfair. These aren’t published and so I can’t give you a source but at least can you see that this is more complicated than you want it to be.

  • tannerlibrary

    Hello,
    I am on break and will return to Tanner on Monday, March 5, but Tanner is open from 8:00 a.m. – noon the week of February 27 – March 2.
    If you have any reference questions and need immediate assistance, please contact Ask a Librarian at the University Library.
    http://www.lib.umich.edu/ask-librarian

    If you have questions about the Department of Philosophy, please e-mail the staff : philosophy.staff@umich.edu

    Thanks!

    Molly

    Molly Mahony, M.L.S.
    Tanner Philosophy Librarian
    mcmahony@umich.edu

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