Kin 405 - Chapter 6 review
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Chapter 6 – Sports on Campus: Intercollegiate Sports and Their Actions
-Role of sports in the university
-University: refuge of scholarship
-The Incompatibility Thesis
-Corruption of intercollegiate sports
-Problems of the black athlete
-A defense of college athletics
-entertainment
-enhance academics
-performing arts
-cognitive skills
-The Game of Life?
-Culture of athletics
-Athletics and educational values
Sports on campus
-is there an ethically questionable side to intercollegiate athletics?
-violence…in 1900s
-academic fraud
-coddling of athletes
-cheating in recruiting/eligibility
-low graduation rates
-win-at-all-costs (cheating)
-with increased media involvement
increased $
increased inequality
increased academic fraud/cheating/coddling of athletes/win-at-all-costs mentality
-incompatibility thesis: intercollegiate athletics are incompatible with academic values
-strong version: incompatibility between academic values and ANY serious forms of intercollegiate sport
-weak version: incompatibility between academic values and elite Division I athletic programs (such as at USC or UCLA)
-central questions: what place should an athletic program have on a college campus? (what role do those sports have on campus?)
Role of sports in the university – the case of incompatibility -just plain wrong?
-desirable?
-what type of program is desirable?
-what is university? university as a refuge of scholarship (what university should be)
-ideal model of what the university should be
-expose students to “the best that has been thought and said”
-transmit, examine, and extend the realms of human knowledge
-critical inquiry: fundamental to a democratic society
A defense of the incompatibility thesis
1.
Given enormous pressure to win, too often athletic programs cheat
2.
Basic contradiction between aims of education and aims of athletics
3.
Values associated with athletics at odds with academic’s critical inquiry and questioning that is central to university
The corruption of intercollegiate sports
-As sport has become a big business…
-If purpose of participation becomes winning for the sake of external goods, players will be viewed as mere means to an end (universities look at players as means to accomplish the goals to be more successful and business of college sports)
-violation of NCAA rules
-misbehavior of college athletes
-low graduation rates
-42 schools failed to graduate ANY black male basketball players between 1991-
1992 and 1994-1995 (shows no correlation between athletics and academic values)
-Using a method of calculating graduation rate that inflates the graduation success rate (which masks the problem of low graduation rates)
-athletes expected to give everything to athletics, no time or effort taken to ensure success in the classroom
-tremendous expenditures for athletic programs, but very few programs actually generate revenue (expenditure > revenue; however this critique isn’t as strong because at ACC conferences, tens of millions of dollars are being given to schools for athletics)
-spending on athlete increasing faster than spending on student-at-large
-ACC in 2010: $15,000 per student-at-large vs. $103,000 per student athlete
The problems of the black athlete
-problems, especially alleged exploitation, particularly apply to the black athlete
-demographics:
-African Americans are:
-12% of the US population
-33+% of college football and basketball players
- ~40% of professional football players
- ~66% of professional basketball players
-Rationale (of disproportionate levels of participation)?
-discrimination
-lack of opportunity in inner-city areas
-dearth/lack of nonathletic role models
-more highly valued within black community: a way out (a way to be successful)
-genetic vs. environmental differences (even if there are genetic differences, that doesn’t explain the whole disproportionate levels of college/professional black athletes; there are environment/social factors that impact that; if it’s just genetic differences then there isn’t much that can be done to impact people’s genetic makeup, but if there’s social differences then there is a number of ways to help make better/ameliorate some of the problems that various people face)
-Problems:
-opportunity for upward mobility through sport limited to few (more helpful for black athletes to get their degrees instead of relying on the slight chance of being able to play professionally)
-major intercollegiate sports capitalize on this gamble
-young African Americans harmed in the process
A defense of college athletics
-sport reinforces academic mission
-some institutions not prone to scandal
-some institutions have high graduation rates
-vast majority of athletes play with no desire/illusion to become professional (so no means to an end with college sports)
College athletics and entertainment
-critics of college sport conceive of the mission of the university too narrowly
-entertainment of the student body and wide community is a public service of the university
-athletics responds to university’s public service obligation (university can provide a major source of events in smaller states/communities and sense of community itself)
-appreciate for the multiple missions of the university
-But critics can reply:
1. entertainment only applies to high profile sports (like basketball, football)
2. type of entertainment from athletics differs in kind from other forms of entertainment the university legitimately provides (strip club on campus to provide entertainment but not entertainment-worthy to put on campus)
3. athletics involve academic abuses other activities don’t normally involve;
-athletics is educationally vacuous/empty
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-response: NCAA has taken steps to raise graduation rates and ensure academic success
-Activity is legitimate if and only if it does not:
1. undermine students/athletes’ chance to receive an education
2. subvert academic norms
3. involve a disdain for academic mission of the university
Can athletics enhance academics?
-most athletes graduate at a higher rate than other students (exceptions are football and basketball)
-utilitarian argument: under suitable condition big-time athletics and academics can be minimally
compatible; therefore athletics should be accepted for utilitarian benefits (higher graduation rate)
-stronger argument: intercollegiate athletics, in the right circumstances, can enhance and contribute to the academic mission of colleges
Athletes and the performing arts
-performing arts accepted as part of the academic mission of university
-distinction between athletics and performing arts is arbitrary
-athletics also aims at excellence
-athletics can be studied as taking place within a tradition and a history
-athletics can express and illuminate important values (dedication, excellence, perseverance)
-Critics:
-few athletes also study history, social significance, and ethical dilemmas of athletics
-what skills should be regarded as within proper domain of university (beer pong? Some skill to play beer pong but that doesn’t seem to be something that should be central to the university)
(relationship with performing arts is good but there is also limits to that argument as well)
Athletics, education, and cognitive skills
-athletics and academics are or can be compatible/mutually reinforcing because of the cognitive skills employed in each enterprise
-athletics are a powerful supplement to a broad liberal arts education
-commitment to the pursuit of excellence
-To excel one must:
-learn to analyze
-overcome weaknesses
-work hard to improve
-understand strengths and weaknesses
-react intelligently and skillfully to situations
-use good judgment -make decisions that are open to reflective criticism
-apply standards of assessment
-critically analyze play
-exhibit perseverance and coolness under pressure
(athletes must excel in these areas for their sport which they can apply to academics)
-Athletics and academics mutually reinforcing (causal, illustrative, and justificatory)
-learn to accept and integrate criticism (causal connection between athletics and academics)
-illustrate value of skills to wider audience (teamwork, working in groups towards a common goal)
-value can serve as a ground for criticism in academic performance (increase problem-
solving skills and developing higher levels of performance given your skill level)
-Good athletic program provides an education experience that is:
-unusually intense
-unusually valuable
-reinforce and develop traits that promote learning elsewhere
-involves the discipline, understanding, and analysis that are related to learning in other parts of the curriculum
(athletics does belong on campus)
-Critics: athletics not a necessary or unique part of educational curriculum -benefit is at best marginal and at worst distracts from more academic pursuits
-Athletics and performing arts are perhaps only areas in most colleges where students achieve and demonstrate excellence
-appreciation of achievement in athletics is widespread
-sport helps build bonds that allow communication to persist that would otherwise breakdown
-sport can illustrate important values and express critical standards: sets the standard for rest of society to emulate
-Athletics add a desirable educational component and reinforces central academic values
-plus other benefits:
-opportunities for relaxation
-make new friends/meet different kinds of people
-promote sense of community
-entertain local/regional/national audience
-model does not easily fit major intercollegiate athletic programs (in terms of promoting the ways in which we excel)
Do intercollegiate athletics fail the Game of Life?
-athletics harmful even at highly selective schools
-athletes given too great an admission advantage
-athletes perform much worse academically
-athletes drag down academic atmosphere of whole institution
-Response:
-need to be careful comparing academic performance of athletes and non-athletes
-conclusions need to be properly contextualized -if we consider weaker student-athletes, then also need to consider stronger student-
athletes that might not have gone to that school if it weren’t for the athletic opportunities -academic performance of many student athletes does not differ significantly from other students (limited minority that makes this difference)
-biggest difference in high-profile male sports (football and basketball) where population is also more socioeconomically diverse
-due to a complex combination of factors (so rather than trying to get rid of sports at American universities, we should be trying to address those socioeconomic factors that lead to differences in performance in the classroom)
-conclude: the analysis in The Game of Life not always compelling because authors did not give adequate attention to the complexities of issues
The “Culture of Athletics” and academics
-culture of athletics
-socialize with other athletes
-pursue different majors (many football players having the same major)
-focus more on financial success after college than general student population
-fostered by:
-early specialization in particular sport
-recruiting policies that reward specialization (specialize in sport and neglect academic achievement even at junior high level)
-athletes’ consequent estrangement from academic missions
-Questionable if this is the whole story:
-institutional factors
-cultural factors
-“jock culture” may have positive as well as negative impacts not just within athletics but also in academics as a whole
Athletics and educational values
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-the academic defense against the Incompatibility Thesis
-virtues necessary for intellectual inquiry necessary for athletic success and personal improvement in sport
-participation in sport can be educational in its own right
-illustrate and exhibit important of intellectual honesty and critical reflection
-sport on campus can develop enthusiasm for intellectual pursuit
-learn teamwork skills
-Cooperate with those different from oneself in pursuit of common goal (sport allows for different people to come together to pursue common goal)
-learn to appreciate achievement (in both academics and athletics)
-learn to view opponents as persons who contribute to own development
-neglected argument is the ethical contribution:
-fair play
-respect for opponents
-understanding, appreciation, and reverence for traditions, practices, and values central to
sport
-Institutions best equipped to promote the harmony between athletics and academics are ones where participants play for the love of the game and where commercialization is minimal (prefer Division III model as oppose to the elite Division I model)
-competitive sport exemplifies a pursuit of an activity for its own sake and illustrates the attempt to meet challenges simply for the sake of testing oneself
Conclusions
-athletic and academic values often conflict, but:
-athletics, when properly integrated into the academic community, can fill important and valuable functions
-harsh criticism of intercollegiate athletics
-are justified in some specific cases
-but not warranted across the board
-role of athletics should be subject to critical scrutiny but
-we shouldn’t ignore positive contributions and educational experiences athletics provide
Quiz
1.
Considering the moral implications of genetic enhancement will likely prevent the future use of genetic enhancement.
False
2.
Athletics can make an ethical contribution to colleges and universities. True
3.
When considering equity in sport, sex pluralism suggests that since there are sex differences that impact sporting contests then treating the sexes with equal respect requires taking into account their impact rather than denying their importance. True
4.
Simon supports the radical conclusion that athletics (like some models around the world) should not be a part of university life. False
5.
One way the authors suggest for increasing support for sex equity in sport is to promote “female dominant sports” that test skills and abilities that physiologically advantage females over males. True
6.
An argument claiming that scientific evidence demonstrates that sex differences are both significant and durable justifies which position? Sex pluralism
7.
The academic defense against the “incompatibility thesis” argues that athletics, properly structured, are not only compatible with academic values but may enhance and reinforce them. True
8.
Although Simon argues that today’s huge “multi-universities” perform many functions, he believes that the most important function of the university is still to transmit, examine,
and extend human knowledge. True
9.
The authors argue that the best approach to sex equity in sport is sex blindness. False
10. The incompatibility thesis supports the claim that if the purpose of intercollegiate sport becomes winning for the sake of external goods, there is a high risk that student-athletes would be seen as mere means to that end. True
11. An argument that “separate but equal” approach enhances the freedom and opportunity of
the previously disadvantaged group supports which position: Sex pluralism
12. The authors argue for an elimination of proportionality in sex equity deliberations. False
13. The authors would disagree with the claim that the educational experience of student-
athletes is compared with those studying the performing arts, such as music, dance, and theater as well as the studio arts, because it is difficult to find substantive differences. False
14. Simon argues that the “incompatibility thesis” states that critical inquiry is also found in intercollegiate sports. False
15. Which of the following would NOT be supported by the authors? Big-time sports fail to fulfill legitimate functions of the university
16. The authors would agree with the following statement that the exhibition of skills by athletes to spectators might illustrate the value of such skills to a wider audience. True
17.
Which one of the following is NOT argued by Simon in relation to intercollegiate athletics? The conflict between intercollegiate athletics and academic values is inevitable
18. According to the authors, the values implicit in sport cannot serve as grounds from criticism in academic performance. False
19. In its stronger version, the “incompatibility thesis” advances that only Division I athletic programs are incompatible with academic values. False
20. For the authors, intercollegiate athletics are not only desirable but also required on campus. False