Athletics Aren't a Luxury at Community Colleges

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By ROB JENKINS

The report caught me off guard: a terse item, buried in the back of the sports section, announcing that Calhoun Community College, in Decatur, Ala., had discontinued its athletics programs. Even though I'd left coaching two years earlier to pursue a second career in academic administration, I still enjoyed keeping up with old rivals. Calhoun had been the opponent in a 1999 regional semifinal that turned out to be my penultimate game as men's head basketball coach at Alabama Southern Community College. In 2000 the Warhawks at Calhoun advanced to the finals of the NJCAA men's basketball championship. A year later they were defunct.

As the news sunk in, however, I realized I wasn't really all that surprised. In my 18 years as a community-college faculty member, basketball coach, athletics director, department chairman, and academic dean, I've learned that athletics programs are always on the table. Inevitably there are those among the faculty and administration who view them as a luxury, not as a function central to the core mission of the institution. When budgets are tight, as they usually are, and administrators are looking for a little extra cash, their steely-eyed gaze turns naturally toward athletics.

I experienced that firsthand when, as a young assistant coach at Paducah Community College in Kentucky (now West Kentucky Community and Technical College), I found myself out of a job after the institution dropped its highly successful basketball programs for men and women. Why? "We needed the money for other things," the college's president at the time explained.

In Calhoun's case, years of budgetary shortfalls had left Alabama's two-year colleges scrambling for operating funds. Most managed to hold onto their athletics programs, despite the fiscal crisis, but some felt they had no choice but to let them go.

So I was intrigued last year when I came across an unusual presentation in the American Association of Community College's convention program: "Enrollment Growth Through Athletics," the title read. Enrollment growth? That sounded suspiciously like a good thing, in sharp contrast to the image of the evil athletics program, siphoning resources while adding little value to the educational mission. This I had to hear.

Paul Thein, vice president of student services and institutional development and director of athletics at Feather River College, explained how his small two-year institution in Northern California hit on the novel idea of starting a football program — football! — to rejuvenate sagging enrollment and increase student retention. How they accomplished all that I won't go into here. The salient point is that Feather River began with the assumption that athletics are good for a college, not detrimental, and that they help build academic programs rather than detract from them.

My own defense of community-college athletics consists of three points: First, in my experience, they really do increase enrollment and retention; second, they enable a college to serve a wider variety of students by including athletes; and finally, they help foster that sense of community without which a community college is, well, just a college.

Thein was especially adamant about the first point during a conversation I had with him following his presentation. "I don't understand colleges that won't fund athletics but will spend thousands of dollars on so-called 'retention programs,'" he told me. "Athletics is a retention program." According to research conducted for the University System of Georgia, the success rate for two-year college students in Georgia — success defined as graduation and/or transfer — is about 36 per cent. Although no one appears to keep comparable statistics for athletes, I'd say their success rate is closer to two-thirds, based on anecdotal evidence I've collected over 18 years at four institutions in four different states.

One reason for the apparent discrepancy between students and student-athletes is motivation. While many students show up on two-year-college campuses without the faintest idea of what they'd like to be doing a year down the road, athletes are usually intent on competing for four years. Since that means they'll have to transfer at some point, they tend to work toward that goal by attempting to accumulate the necessary credit hours. Indeed, athletes must pass at least 12 hours each semester with a minimum 2.0 GPA simply to remain eligible. So as a group they are highly motivated to go to class, do passing work, and remain enrolled — in theory, at least.

In reality, many athletes are no more highly motivated than other students — some less so. But athletes at most two-year colleges have the advantage of a sophisticated and comprehensive support system: coaches who force them to go to class, assistant coaches and tutors who monitor their academic progress, and required study halls and tutoring sessions. Without that support system, many athletes would undoubtedly drop out. With it, they tend not only to stay in school but usually end up moving on.

Another reason two-year colleges ought to sponsor intercollegiate athletics programs is that a fair number of prospective students are athletes. After all, most community colleges support art, music, and theater programs based on the conviction that they are obligated to serve those individuals in their area who might have an interest in the arts. Why wouldn't the same reasoning apply to athletics?

Of course, not all high-school athletes in a college's service area are capable of competing at the collegiate level — but many are. Among those who are, some may choose to play elsewhere. But if the local community college has no athletics programs, that choice has already been made for them.

There is even some evidence that athletics programs appeal to students who are not actually planning to participate. As a biology professor at a Florida community college recently told me, the college's reputation for fielding competitive teams is one reason students choose it. "Parents know their kids will get a good education when they come here, but athletics is clearly part of the attraction," he explained. "I believe some students who might have gone elsewhere come here because of our success in athletics. It's part of the total package."

Recently I learned that Calhoun has begun reinstating its athletics programs, beginning with men's baseball and women's softball last fall. Calhoun's new president, Marilyn Beck, who has expressed pleasure at the return of athletics to her campus, notes that the teams will have a decidedly different composition. "In the past," she explained, "we might have recruited athletes from hundreds of miles away. Now we're going to focus on those students in our service area who are interested in sports."

Finally, as Roy W. Johnson, chancellor of the Alabama College System, has noted, athletics programs are "one of the ties that bind the college to the community." Johnson has used his position to help two-year colleges like Calhoun find money to rebuild once-proud sports programs that have fallen victim to the budgetary ax over the years. "A community college is a cultural center for the community, and athletics is a big part of that," he says.

In the end, despite the costs, it's clear to me that athletics have a place on two-year-college campuses. Colleges that sponsor programs benefit from an expanded pool of potential students, while the students gain much-needed opportunities, and community members find yet another reason to embrace the school.

That doesn't sound like a luxury to me.

Rob Jenkins is an associate professor of English and director of the Writers Institute at Georgia Perimeter College.