Academic Suport Restricted to the Athletically Inclined

Other "majors" have their special buildings---why not the athelets?

All students on campus have access to academic support, whether it be through their degree departments or from students needing to fulfill requirements. Often times professors will help all students if they come for assistance.
Athletes at most D1 schools do have academic buildings just for their use, some more elaborate than others. The money does not come from the school, it comes from money raised by athletic boosters and grants, and revenue from sports. This article makes it appear as if the student athlete is special, you bet they are! They work their tales off for their athletic departments which includes countless hours in practice, games, on the road, etc. why shouldn't they receive help? But the article makes it appoear that those not in sports get cheated and I don't agree. Schools spend millions on libraries, student unions, etc. I was shocked when I saw the athletic facilites for all students at son's school, indoor swimming pool, suspended indoor track, climbing wall, plenty of workout equipment.

When we visited campus I was more interested in what was offered to son as a student athlete than the facilites. He had to put in his required 10 hours a week in study hall, but when that ended he still used the resources avaliable, I doubt he would have done as well as he did if he hadn't had that available.
It's nice to see schools make commitments to their student atheletes other than building new stadiums and baseball facilities.
These "perks" are some of the things my player worked so hard for in hS to be able to attend and play at a D1 school.
JMO.

I am currently in school to finish up my bachelors. I am at a state school. I have 2 semesters to go to finish my Bachelor of science degree in nursing. At the school I am attending they have a writing center. ANY student can go in and sign up for tutoring. I go for an hour a week with a English major student for FREE. That tutoring would cost me 50.00 an hour easily. We work on my papers,In my opinion many students do not take advantage of what there is offered for free. The athletes are required to attend study hall and tutoring. There are a lot of rescources for free for all studnets if they look and take the time. They have workshops for writing, review classes before exams etc etc. its there. My writing has improved by leaps and bounds after being out of school for so long. The students just need to look for whats offered.

Many schools offer special academic services for the student-athletes. For some...it is a by-product of the NCAA and the APR standards. If schools do not graduate their student-athletes, scholarships get cut. At the big time (BCS conferences) programs, the schools make millions off the athletes, so it pays to invest those monies back into your assets. It is simply smart business practice.

JT, absolutely good business practice, good marketing too!

Another thing that I thought of, we all know that northern schools have to buck up against the warm weather schools when it comes to recruiting. What better way to impress than building million dollar academic centers to impress the student has other goals besides going pro.

I really don't have a problem with it, I never had any problems getting help when needed back in the day.

Where this one stop help center may come in handy is if you leave things to the last minute, and then get stuck. But, if you are ahead of curve and have planned ahead, you could usually get your questions answered in class, or right after class.

At the University I attended, 90% of the Prof's kept their office hours or had someone sitting in for them if they were not there.

I just do not see it as that big of a deal !!!

I don't think you'll get many arguments here as we all have athletes and know how hard these guys work in school and on the field.

Reading www.collegeconfidential.com there are many, many parents that have academic students(non-athletes)that absolutely hate the fact that athletes may get preferential treatment in college admissions and during college. It is amazing how vehement these parents are against any advantages for athletes. It seemed to me the author of the article was slanting the article toward those people that don't support college athletics.

I agreee there are academic support services for ALL college students but they must utilize them for it to be beneficial. That being said, there is just a huge bias against athletes by many people(unfortunatley).

CaBB, I visit that site often as well. It's interesting how athletics is so bad in their eyes, but the drama department, the band, etc is "to make the University and person better."

Many large D1 colleges have large budgets ($1M)
for academic support for student-athletes.
The budget pays for labor and 5th year
academic scholarships for student athletes.

Required attendance for many if not all freshman
and under-performing lower and upper classman.

Since attendance is taken, the freshman
student athletes for the revenue producing sports
show up, sign in, and leave.

As far as collegeconfidential, I've seen both sides of the coin there. I've been able to get some very helpful information there on college athletics and have some nice posts back and forth about recruiting and the college search for athletes when going through that process with my son over the past year. Maybe because we limited our search to D3 schools I didn't come across as much negative stuff. As more money is spent in the larger programs, that may be where more of the criticism is, I guess.