Graduation into the real world

Graduation is a time for celebration, and there were lots of events at the University of Wyoming at the end of the semester to put people in the mood.

First, I attended a luncheon to honor the finalists for the Spitaleri Award given to the top female student at the university. Hanna Bush, a senior in journalism from Gillette, was a finalist, and I attended the lunch with her and her parents. Hanna didn't win the award, but the recognition of being one of the top seven women out of the entire senior class is truly an outstanding achievement. And the lunch was pretty good.

The next week, I went to breakfast with Hanna and her parents (they put in a lot of driving!) to honor the College of Arts and Sciences top 10 graduating seniors. Dean Oliver Walters and his staff put on a nice spread, and I ate way more than usual for breakfast that day. By the way, Hanna also was editor for the Branding Iron this past year.

Last weekend, the winner of the first Larsh Bristol award for photojournalism was honored at the UW Alumni House. UW student Joe Riis had a public show of his photography funded by the Bristol award. Larsh Bristol was an alumni of our journalism program, and his friends set up this award after his death. Riis has done some incredible work documenting the migration of the Jackson Hole antelope herd. His work is also being funded by National Geographic, which gives you some idea of the quality of his photography project.

Hanna and Joe are just two of the remarkable students you will find at UW. I think you'll be hearing more about them in the future.

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.