Idea of offering sports majors gains interest
MAJOR from page 1
athletes can’t handle the strenuous
demands that come with excelling in
sports, he said.
“You hear about these tilings all
over,” Sperber said. “And it will only
get worse if the major changes aren’t
made.”
Though Sperber is decidedly
against it, a universal athletics major
proposal would fit the bill of a major
change.
It essentially works on this
premise: Artists can major in art,
dancers get to major iff dance. Why
can’t athletes major in athletics?
Already, some of these classes are
available at UNL, cross-listed under
the Department of Health and Human
Performance in the Teachers College.
Golfers, for example, could take a
one-credit class, 105P, in which they
practice golf. Similar classes exist for
other sports as well.
And the University of Nebraska
Lincoln offers other classes dealing in
certain aspects of sports, such as
Journalism 498 - Sports and Media
Relations.
But none of these classes is in the
same college, and none of them ties
into an overall course of study for ath
letics.
Several Nebraska athletes see the
possibility of an athletic major as a
positive one. Right now, they said,
some athletes continue in the field of
athletics after college, whether it be
playing professionally, coaching or in
administration.
i nere are so many amerent ways
to go in athletics now,” Nebraska quar
terback Eric Crouch said. “The fields'
are getting bigger and bigger. If some
body wants to go into that, then I think
they should have the classes to do it.”
Nebraska volleyball player Mandy
Monson agreed, saying athletics has
been a burgeoning career field for
women in the past decade and is worth
developing.
“There are s© many more opportu
nities for women; more women are
playing in sports,” Monson said. “The
thing about playing sports is that we
love it. If somebody loves something,
they ought to go back and contribute in
it.”
But Sperber said he has concerns.
Already, he said, athletes in his classes
suffer because of travel schedules and
an “overemphasis” on sports. An ath
letics major, in Sperber’s mind, would
only enable athletes to slide in the field
of academics even more.
It might also heighten the percep
tion that athletes don’t work hard at
their universities, Sperber said.
Although none of the athletes admits it
directly, the adage of “there goes a
dumb jock” is something they’ve all
heard before.
“There’s always going to be peo
ple,” said Crouch, a junior exercise
science major. “You don’t think there’s
people that would say anything about
anyone? There is.”
“But most people, they respect
other people for what they do. I think
Mike Warren/DN
ERIC CROUCH doesn’t think college athletes ought to be paid for their time
in sports. “The scholarship is the payment,” Crouch said. “They treat us
well.”
people respect athletes for what they
do. But there’s always going to be
some talk.”
That talk can be heard surrounding
the concept of jock classes. Around
campus, the phrase “Rocks for Jocks,”
otherwise known as Geology 101, is
widely recognized. Associate geo
sciences professor Richard Kettler has
heard it as well.
“It’s remarkably memorable,”
Kettler said. “There’s no similar
phrase to it. And let’s face it - as a
physical science, (geology) is a lot less
intimidating to students than chem
istry or physics.”
Crouch followed the same line of
thinking.
“For me, a biology class or major
is going to be a lot harder than a psy
chology class or major,” he said. “I
like psychology more - it’s a class I
understand better. So I’m going to take
the psychology class.”
While geology may have the
“easy” tag attached to it, Kettler said
he doesn’t see a great number of ath
letes in his classes. Of the 180 students
he teaches now, he estimated that
about 10 were athletes. Last semester,
Kettler taught an afternoon class,
which conflicted with practice time,
and therefore fewer athletes were in it,
Withfhe athletes Kettler does have
in class, he said his experiences have
been mostly positive. Though he does
n’t allow them to reschedule any
missed tests, all students are allowed
to drop their lowest test grades.
There are no preconceived notions
of athletes in his classroom setting,
Kettler said. Ninety percent of the ath
letes in his class, he said, come to him
the first day of class, give him a letter
describing their situations, then keep
in touch with him by telling him whim
they will attend class.
Occasionally, members of the ath
letic department will call to inquire
about an athlete’s progress in his class,
Kettler said.
It’s an act that became a problem at
the University of Minnesota, when
academic officials pressured profes
sors to give basketball players good
grades to keep them eligible.
Kettler said he has encountered no
such problems at UNL. More often
than not, athletes are “virtually indis
tinguishable” from other students, he
said. ’ ^
“(The administrators) trvyery
hardto make surethey’reoet^ressur
ing you,” Kettler safrf.“It’s almost
obsequious. Sometimes they’ll say
‘We’re just looking for informationr ,
“There is no way Qf predicting how
(students) will perform in a class,
Whether tfr not they’re athletes. My
impression is that they have die same
sort of distribution in grades as others
- probably dispersed a little bit lower
than other students.” ,
Nebraska linebacker Brian Shaw
serves as a prime argument for the idea
that athletes make good students.
He graduated from UNL with a 4.0
grade point average in animal science
and recently was named a second
team Academic All-American for his
efforts.
Shaw said athletics helped him in
his studies by teaching the values of
“discipline, accountability and hard
work ethic.” And though he said he
wouldn’t have any interest in an athlet
ics major, Shaw saw his experience
with the Cornhuskers as strong on
the-job training.
“When I get into the business
world, it’s something I’m putting on
my resume,” Shaw said. “People see
that, and they know that I can work
well in a team environment and work
well with others.”
While Monson, a senior business
major, refers to her future career as
“my million-dollar question,” she
agreed with Shaw.
“You have so much confidence
when you come out of athletics,”
Monson said. “You learn more there
than you ever would in one of your
classes in terms of how to deal with
people.”
Sperber said that is the mentality
of most athletes until they actually
enter the business world.
Because only about 1 percent of
athletes actually play professional
sports, many of them aren’t ready for a
completely different atmosphere.
Under the dirrent system, Sperber
said, universities are turning out ath
letes who aren’t adequately prepared
for a life outside the game.
“The athletic departments use the
athletes for profit, then discard them
when their eligibility is up,” he said.
Sperber’s idea is to scrap the entire
system, turn many athletes back into
students, and keep the best athletes
just athletes.
His solution: Pay them a salary.
Don’t make them go to school. And
make the university more a center of
learning than earning.
“Let’s just cut through all the bull
shit,” he said.
Sperber said college sports would
diminish greatly under a plan like his.
Many of the students who play sports
now probably wouldn’t in the future.
Some Division I programs which
couldn’t keep up would drop to lower
divisions. Only the top programs, such
as Nebraska’s football team, could
stay in the upper echelon of college
teams.
<
f
f The All-Americans
Athletes and their
tutors
Learning Disabilities
The Sports Major
Corruption in the
System
Isolation and Its
Counterparts
Athletes After Graduation
The Social Scene for Athletes
Athletes as Role Models
A Day in the Life
The Academic/
Athletic Tradeoff
Gameday
It wouldn’t be much different from
right now, Sperber said, as only a
handful of teams compete for national
titles on a regular basis, anyway.
“It’d get rid of all the crap, all the
NCAA violations, all the things that
these athletes shouldn’t have to put up
with,” Sperber said.
Crouch disagreed. He likes his
amateur status and considers his foot
ball scholarship as payment for play
ing. Plus, he said, Nebraska’s program
is clean and has nothing to worry
about.
“This is what you come to college
for,” Crouch said. “I wouldn’t want to
choose between them.”
I
i
■ 1
Budget vote postponed
By Sara Salkeld
Staff writer
The vote on the ASUN budget
scheduled for Thursday’s Committee
for Fees Allocation meeting was post
poned until Tuesday.
CFA member Summer Spivey
spoke on behalf of the subcommittee
assigned to review ASUN’s budget
request, which was presented
Tuesday.
“Our concern is, that with every
other budget proposal we’ve looked
at, there has been a week to look over
it,” Spivey said.
Another concern relating to the
ASUN budget is the increase of
$4,725 for health-care benefits.
This increase is reflected in indi
vidual categories of ASUN’s budget
where health-care benefits apply.
The subcommittee report would
cut ASUN’s total budget request by
$4,017. According to the report, this
money would be taken from the NU
on Wheels advertising budget.
Subcommittee member Scott
Peterson said the subcommittee
might want to revise its recommenda
tion for ASUN.
Peterson said the subcommittee
did not have time to go over the bud
get with ASUN President Andy
Schuerman and NU on Wheels
Student Coordinator Molly Schmitz.
“We would like to understand
more fully the advertising budget,”
Spivey said.
CFA member Nolan Gaskill did
not feel the vote should have been
postponed.
“I think we should just hash it out
here,” Gaskill said.
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