Letter: Student-athlete defends early class enrollment, questions Cigar editorial

10/24/07 - To the Cigar,Last Thursday I awoke to read my e-mail and find the editorial titled, "Student-athletes cheat the system." First and foremost I realize that in writing this letter it only seems self-serving as I am writing from a student-athlete point of view. The truth of the matter is that student-athletes by no means cheat the system by using early registration.

The early registration system is in place and available to numerous student groups and organizations on campus with legitimate time constraints, not just student-athletes. The early registration system is also meant to avoid the possibility of missing class due to travel schedules, not practice schedules. The author of the editorial would have risen an absolutely legitimate concern to be dealt with on our campus had the editorial been factually based.

The author claims that seniors should be outraged that some freshmen are registering for classes in front of them. First, most freshmen are not taking the same classes as seniors, and, if they are, more than likely the seniors never did what they were supposed to in regards to finishing their general education courses in their earlier years here.

The other possibility is that they are taking a free elective course at 100- or 200-level. Many student-athletes, myself included, never registered for early registration. Only approximately 80 percent of student-athletes registered for this. It is not something that is just given to student-athletes as the author would lead you to think. There is an application process that includes a meeting with an adviser within the student's discipline who needs to approve the application.

Student-athletes make up approximately 3 to 4 percent of the university. They span 77 majors and reside within every college. If done by average alone, which is not completely accurate given that some majors have more student-athletes than others, there are about six-and-a-half student-athletes per major.

If every student-athlete took advantage of the early registration system, which is not the case, there would be 32 class spots taken in these majors before normal registration began. Given that many majors have upwards of 20 classes, you are literally talking about one or two student-athletes per class that would be registered before regular registration began. The author is arguing for a difference that is beyond miniscule.

To argue that student-athletes are shaping class schedules around practice is an absolutely false statement. As a member of our track team, our scheduled practice times are from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. I get out of class on Mondays and Wednesdays at 4:15 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3:15 p.m. Do not think for a second that I am the exception and not the rule.

Almost all student-athletes have classes that conflict with their scheduled practice times during their years here. The football team practices twice a week as early as 7 a.m. and holds afternoon practices other days. In past years baseball has held practice at 10 p.m. to midnight.

So while you argue for students waking up at the crack of dawn to study or working in the computer lab until midnight, I say you offer no break to student-athletes waking up at the crack of dawn and staying up until midnight to practice. These same student-athletes will then attempt to go home to study, go to work, or attempt to have a social life as well.

The student who works a job 10, 20, or 30 hours a week does not need 20, 30, or 40 of their teammates there in order to conduct a reasonable practice. Although it is easier to conduct individual practices in some sports such as track and field, gymnastics, swimming or golf, I challenge you to watch a football practice consisting of one student-athlete. It would go something like this Joe Smith passes to Smith who breaks a tackle by J. Smith and he breaks outside he's in a foot chase now with Joe Smith down and injured on this past play. As many sports revolve around teams, it is literally impossible to practice without an entire team.

The student working a job in Narragansett or on campus does not need the same 40 people there everyday to get their job done. To contend that student-athletes do not hold jobs is absurd. I myself worked the door at George's last year often not getting home until 2 or 2:30 in the morning, and I know of numerous other student-athletes that work as well.

The author raises the point that student-athletes need to attend practice to maintain scholarships. Let me dispel the scholarship myth at the university. Most teams at the university are not fully funded, meaning that they have the maximum scholarships allowed by NCAA regulation.

Most men [players] besides football and basketball [players] are not on scholarship. This is not Ohio State University where the athletic department turns a profit, where almost all student-athletes are on full scholarship and have state of the art everything.

We have an outdoor track that has not held a track meet in 13 years and resembles a parking lot more than anything else. Our baseball field is rivaled in stature by the local town's softball fields, our pool just underwent extensive maintenance due to it not functioning even close to properly and our previous training room looked like something out of a bad 1980s football movie.

Just a quick side note. The pool and track facilities at URI are shared facilities for the general student population, unlike many schools that have varsity facilities that are not accessible to non-student-athletes. Student-athletes URI are by no means the pampered pre-madonnas that many would like to think we are.

Nearly all of the schools in the Atlantic 10 conference use early registration and the university was one of the last institutions in the conference to implement it. The policy was enacted three semesters ago after more than 15 years of debate.