U. of South Florida Promises a Laptop for All Athletes

Oh….no chance of cheating here.

Maybe they can do the same for truly economically disadvantaged college students. Or what about students who’d like to complete online programs but don’t have ready access to a computer?These athletes get enough perks already. Their counterparts 10, 20, 30 years ago didn’t have this type of luxury and I’m sure many of them managed to keep up with their coursework.

As Lawrence Welk used to always say, Wonderful, Wonderful! Now the athletes at USF can participate in the national distribution scheme now in place. They will be able to download term papers written on topics close to their assigments at USF. This is known as the Athletes helping Athletes Program. USF, allow me to be among the first to congratulate you, in advance, for your dramatic increase in the graduation rates of your athletes. Good job.

you’ve got to be kidding, is this 4/1?

for the synics chiming in here, with broad based stereotypes and bias: members of academic communities who are generally thought to be otherwise smart people, and who espouse respect and tolerance, are certainly capable of digressing at times. not all student-athletes fit the stereotypic mold of the dumb jock; they do not all cheat, or see their academics as unimportant. some of them are actually smart, responsible kids, who have bruising schedules filled with academic and athletic commitments beyond what the average student might have. and many of them play sports other than the high profile ones that seem to engender such ill will. it’s unfortunate when those within an academic setting do not see their student-athletes as members of their community who deserve the benefit of the doubt, until they as individuals prove otherwise. some of you should get to know some of them. you might be surprised. JLG

jeffgray: +1. It boggles my mind that the “dumb jock” stereotype continues to be not just tolerated but celebrated in these forums. Are all athletes stellar students? Of course not. Are all non-athletes stellar students? Of course not. I’ve taught enough athletes who managed their difficult schedules and excelled in my courses to know that they don’t deserve the opprobrium heaped on all athletes for the sins of some. This really is, I’m sorry to say, a case of a clueless ivory-tower mentality that reflexively denegrates certain endeavors that the detractors happen not to be interested in, so they pontificate that they’re not worthwhile interests for anyone. The comments in these forums remind me too much of people who don’t bother to make any effort to learn something about the arts, resulting in similarly thoughtless remarks about those as well.I would have thought that USF athletic department should have been praised, or at least not criticized, for devoting resources to helping young people to succeed in their academic work, but I guess that was just too much to ask.

@laoshi: Case in point. Would this be tolerated if it were about any other group of our students?

RE: jeffgray’s comment about us “synics” [sic]— I’m at a division I school and have frequent contact with student athletes. You are correct, there are some stllar ones, usually among the golfers, soccer players, field hockey, tennis, and swimmers. These genuine student-athletes [in contradistinction to athlete-"students"] have expressed some of the same “stereotypes” being expressed in this forum: that certain athletes are given special privileges [wake up calls, note-takers, special meals and residency facilities, special tutors, early registration, on-road exams... the list goes on]. And as the students like to say, let’s “get real”: the top offenders are football and basketball (when was the last time you saw a front-page spread about the triathlon or field hockey?]. Granted, some of the other sports occasionally get that special treatment when doing well. I would also add, there are numerous divsion I coaches who are probably equally irritated, appalled, and dismayed at the inequality with with coahes are treated. Really why should a basketball coach get a multi-million dollar contract and product endorsements, and alumni-fed bonues and not the swimming coach? As many have already pointed out in print, the irony of course is that many of these privileged athletes are mere pawns in a large game of economics and status for the schools and career glorification for coaches (oops, let’s not forget those million dollar salaries), given how very few college athletes actually go on into the pros and having failed to acquire an education flounder, indeed fail to graduate [don't let that new NCAA gradution number fool you, a number cleverly devised to lower the denominator by eliminating from graduation rates those who drop out while still eligible for sports!]The s(p)orts of accomodation provided some athletes in the name of helping them with their education are simple smoke and mirrors as there is to my knowledge no data whatsoever to suggest that these perks actually help an athlete learn [quite different from helping the athlete pass a course, an acoomplishment that should be shared by the athlete and the athletic department]. These perks both hurt other athletes and non-athlete students. And perhaps most damaging of all, it makes a mockery of education, already under considerable attack from multiple quarters.Why not simply hire athletes, as we do staff, to play for schools? This would be more honest, still provide opporunities for school spirit, and re-assert the nature of an education. The sooner we do this, the less likely we will be to see “atudent-athlete” offered up as an oxymoron… at least for a few selected privileged sports.

To jeffgray – Go to Google – Put in Florida State Re: Athletics. See how they produce “stellar” academically talented athletes. While on Google, you can check out a good number of other colleges and universities who use even more creative ideas (than Florida State) to produce academically talented athletes – and amazingly all of this notable learning occurs outside the classroom. Then write to us again, revealing even more of your pearls of wisdom on this subject.

Clearly, lots of negative commenters were picked on by big bad athletes. That’s too bad. On the road with a laptop supported by NCAA funds, or at the Panera down the road with a laptop supported my Mom & Dad (or PART-TIME JOB–many students have those, you know), a cheater will do what s/he does. You all know that.

Greenhills73— one can always find exceptions to the group statistics and to the extent that your son is one, I am pleased for you. However, neither the exception to the rule nor personal testimony over-ride the basic stats for graduation rates, drop-outs, over-sized athletic budgets (yes, primarily in football and basketball),and the fact that most analysts of current Division I athletic programs conclude that they are simply not economically sustainable. etc. [By the way, Penn State under Paterno has had an exemplary graduation rate for decades; alas his is an exception.]I agree students can be athletes and that the good ones can be exemplars of academic achievement and time management and efficieny. However, they are the exceptions; I challenge you to provide us with hard evidence to the contrary. I’m less sanguine if athletes can be students— there is a big difference and until we acknowledge it and separate the student athlete from the athlete-”student” your son and his parents will likely be tarnished with the same brush. If you are really SO tired, I’d urge you to get involved with the NCAA and your son’s school; they could certainly benefit from someone like you.

Even if not discriminatory, it doesn’t strike me as economically well-considered, unless Verizon and Apple’s negotiations have somehow benfited USF, even if only temporarily. One wonders about the exact nature of the Verizon Foundation grant and any USF obligations to purchase Verizon-Apple products now or in the future. For the record, 13″ Macbook Pros list for over $1,100 each. Further, many acaedmically-oriented software programs do not run, or run very poorly, on Macs as Apple has concentrated on the entertainment and communications businesses. Someone hasn’t does his/her homework…

I suspect my response will be a bit too logical and I will admit not very practical given our obsession with entertainment. Suppose we as a nation eliminated ALL intercollegiate athletics. If their love of the ‘game’ is so great, join a minor league team or play intramural sports. Just think, no student-athletes, no athletic students, no NCAA, no free laptops, no embarrassing lacrosse incidents not to mention student-athlete assaults. Of course, the apologists would weep and moan that their poor unfortunate ‘students’ would be deprived of an education that they could not otherwise afford. Please pardon me while I stifle a chuckle. The ‘academically qualified’ students would still attend some school and the others would have to find another path to the pros or whatever suits their fancy. The University of (fill in the blanks) would still be a University if it did not field a football or other type of team but what if they eliminated the Math or (fill in the blanks) department. Indeed, I believe Hofstra and one other school have recently seen the light and disbanded their programs. Perhaps others will do the same. Obviously the tail is wagging the dog here and the rest of the animal is being beset by fleas.

I wonder why it’s Macs. I worked in the library at USF a couple of years ago and all of the computers there and in all of the labs I ever saw were PCs. They would have done better to buy them PC laptops and use the savings to hire full-time tutors for those athletes who need academic help.

Some interesting comments. My actual name is signed next to my comments, which I will add emphasis too without repeating them. Happy to see that they elicited some responses though, even if some did not embrace them warmly, which is no surprise. While it would be an interesting exercise to offer a point by point rebuttal (or in some cases agreement, as there are many points to agree with), there is neither the time nor the space to do so. Suffice it to say that sometimes lost in the politics of the campus debate over intercollegiate athletics is the more granular focus on the individual students and athletes, and the individual teams, not all of them high profile as some have noted, but all of which would seem to deserve the benefit of the doubt, which they apparently do not get from some. In many cases, their respective graduation rates are equal to or better than their non-athlete peers, (and not all of them major in basket weaving). I would even venture a guess that some of the high profile athletes from the high profile sports are good students and good human beings, who deserve a modicum of support from the adults in their respective communities and the opportunity to succeed. It seems to me that professionals in an academic community have a responsibility to those entrusted to them, even if they are student-athletes. cmsmw: could not agree more with your observations. Unfortunately there will always be those idividual student-athletes and teams (not to mention coaches and entire institutions) who provide the academic and social fodder that others will use to paint the entire population of student-athletes with the same broad brush; and the profile of the student-athlete population will always provide others with more material to work with when members of their group digress(vs non-athletes, even though the latter group faces more than its share of the same issues). And you will not hear a defense here of the exorbitant salaries paid to high profile coaches; there is no defense for this, but this is not the fault of the individual student-athletes. JLG