Monday, April 27, 2009

Putting the student back in student athlete


When I walked into my Online Journalism class on the first day of this semester, I felt like I was entering Lilliputia, and I was one of the midgets. I stand about 6-feet tall and normally don't feel dwarved in most social settings. But this class was full of huge guys who are on the Cowboy football and basketball teams.

The other student-athlete in the class, a UW golf team member, is average size.

For the most part, the athletes have shown up for class regularly and are performing satisfactorily in their academic work. That amazes me, considering the time they must spend outside of the classroom on training, practice and travel.

I played two years of high school football until I realized there wasn't much of a future for a 130-pound quarterback. But I remember coming home after a full day of school followed by two tough hours of practice. After wolfing down as much food as my mother could cook, I would face another 1-3 hours of homework most evenings. Then, exhausted, I'd try to grab at least eight hours of snooze time.

But I can't imagine trying to do that at the college level, juggling a full-time course load with a grueling schedule of weightlifting, cardio workouts, full-contact practices and long road trips.

Apparently, a lot of athletes can't handle that strict regime either. Graduation rates for major men's sports are a big concern for the NCAA, and many universities face penalties and sanctions for not meeting graduation benchmarks.

Those penalties don't concern me much. I am more concerned in getting individual student-athletes their diplomas in their five years of scholarship time. Athletes with full-ride scholarships get a heck of a deal - free tuition and fees, room and board, and books. Even at an inexpensive state school such as UW, that can be worth over $100,000.

In exchange, student-athletes provide entertainment for thousands of alumni and fans, and generate millions of dollars in ticket sales and donations. Some sustain injuries that will bother them the rest of their lives.

But if they don't graduate, I think they are being cheated by the system.

My solution: allow athletes to take a part-time courseload during their seasons. For football players, that would mean they would only have to take nine credit hours (three classes) in fall. It would be more problematic for basketball, but I propose starting their season later in fall semester and running it longer into March in spring semester. Under my system, basketball players would only have to take nine hours in spring then.

To keep them on track toward graduating in five years, I propose that student-athletes get three hours of internship credit during fall for football or during spring for basketball.

Student-athletes in other sports would also be eligible for part-time courseloads and internship credit. The hard work they put in for practice and intercollegiate competitions should be worth internship credit. Every athlete would be allowed to take up to 12 internship hours over their college careers.

A lot of professors would say that student-athletes are only part-time students anyhow. But I think reforming academic standards would result in better grades, more learning and higher graduation rates.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Hardball: Chris Matthews Live


One of the great things about working at the University of Wyoming is the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, from all walks of life. One benefit of being in Wyoming is that the state attracts a lot of famous people, too.

Over the years, I've had former Interior Secretary James Watt speak to a class, talked about horses with former 20/20 anchor Hugh Downs, and listened to former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson's stories and yarns at several social functions.

The latest public figure to visit campus was Chris Matthews. The host of MSNBC's Hardball was on campus today at the invitation of Al and Pete Simpson to discuss the Obama presidency. But first, Matthews took the time to have lunch with students and faculty from the Communication and Journalism Department.

Most of what I know about Matthews comes from Saturday Night Live skits poking fun at him and from recent quips from the right wing about his "man crush" on Obama. I've seen his show a few times but don't watch it regularly.

So it was interesting to hear him talk about his career as a columnist for the San Francisco Examiner who has written five books and got into journalism because he was fascinated by politics.

Although he had just returned from Egypt and was kind of run down from the quick trip to Wyoming and our 7,200-foot altitude, Matthews was very accessible to the students who wanted to know, basically, what it's like to be him.

His biggest news story? Covering the fall of the Berlin Wall for the Examiner easily topped the list for him.

His gaffe while dancing on the Ellen Show? He praised Ellen DeGeneres for having the savvy and guts to turn the controversy over her lesbianism into one of the most popular TV shows on the air.

But my favorite anecdote had to do with his role in the Culture of Celebrity. Matthews said he was shopping for sunglasses in Bloomingdale's recently and, within 20 minutes, somebody had put video of his shopping trip online.
Thanks to the Simpson family for inviting Matthews here, and thanks to Chris Matthews for taking the time to talk with our students.

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Scholarships: Demand up, but so is supply

As we enter Week 12 of the semester at the University of Wyoming, students and faculty alike realize that the time to learn is winding down. Some students are so far behind that they probably can't catch up. Others are improving their scholastic work every week as they absorb and process new information and skills. Those are the ones who will see their efforts rewarded.

Last week, the Student Interaction Committee met to award scholarships to deserving Communication and Journalism students. Demand was up this year, but so was supply - a welcome economic situation during the current recession. More than 40 students applied for scholarships for the next academic year and for this summer. The increase probably is due to two factors: 1.) their parents can't afford to fund students as much as in the past due to the lousy economy, and 2.) better efforts by the department to publicize the scholarships.

The committee - Rebecca Roberts, Eileen Gilchrist and me - sorted the scholarship applications into several stacks based upon grade-point average, major and residency. Some scholarships require a GPA above a certain level. Others were aimed solely at journalism majors or students in advertising and public relations. One was geared for students from certain Wyoming counties.

Another factor we considered was extra-curricular activities. For instance, students who worked on the Branding Iron and other student publications, or those who had internships with newspapers, businesses or public relations agencies sometimes had an edge over students without those experiences for certain scholarships.

In the end, we awarded as many scholarships as possible to deserving students. Some scholarship funds had as much as $3,000 in them. We usually chose to split that sum into two or three awards to spread the money out among as many students as possible.

The big addition this year was the availability of summer scholarships that would pay for COJO classes taken during the summer sessions. The $10,000 available for summer scholarships made it possible for the committee to award some money to every student who applied for those.

On April 19, we will hold the annual Student Recognition Reception to publicly acknowledge the efforts of students receiving COJO scholarships.