A classroom full of students watches the professor, some attentively, some between glances at the clock. At 11:32 a.m., a handful of athletes, all sitting in the same corner of the room, signal to each other and quietly exit the room. The professor wishes them luck on their way out the door.
On the other side of the room, another student, embittered by the athletes’ early departure, leans over and whispers a very angry “jockocracy” into the ear of her neighbor to her left.
Jockocracy is a term that not many people have heard of unless they have been following the recent studies of academics and athletics. Many elite universities have been lowering their admissions for athletes to keep up their constant athletic victories. If there are many schools doing this to defend their athletic titles, what makes Cabrini so different in keeping its tradition of victory?
Ryan Greer, an admissions counselor and lacrosse coach, said, “I do not look to see if a student is an athlete before I accept them. If I receive an application that I know is a lacrosse player, I give the application to another counselor so that the admission is not biased,” Greer said.
Greer feels that as a coach, his athletes should not be treated special. “If anything I expect them to exceed the average student,” Greer said.
“Yes, we are excused from class so we are treated a little differently, however, I don’t feel that teachers give us good grades because of it,” Mercedes Dotter, a junior business administration major, said. Dotter is also a first-year tennis player.
“We are not getting special treatment. We are responsible for all the missed material. It’s not like we’re just skipping class,” Steph Heinz, a senior sports science major and field hockey player, said.
“I wouldn’t say they get special treatment, but I would say people look at them differently. People tend to stereotype the entire team instead of each individual person,” Dave Arnold, a junior math major, said.
The National Collegiate Athletic Division raised the bar for student athletes academically. The NCAA is expecting higher GPAs for its athletes.
“Our student athletes every year uphold the dignity and honor of the school on and off the field.” Greer said.
Posted to the Web by Angelina Wagner
