[NU Sports] Interesting interview with Tulane sports law expert

[Jeff Beamsley]

I'm not sure what you mean by "special accommodation".

There are some majors that are more popular with NU football players than others.

The real question is can these people find a good job in their area of study when they graduate?

That isn't to say that NU should become a vocational school.  There should be a quantifiable difference in the quality of every NU grad, if nothing else than to justify the cost.  

That said, if NU grads are getting jobs, then it really isn't important in a relative sense, how academically rigorous any "jock" major is.

Jeff
 
-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Evan Bradley
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 12:01 PM
To: 'nwu-sports at tssi.com' Sports List
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Interesting interview with Tulane sports law expert

I'm not naïve enough to think that it doesn't happen, I was just saying that I don't know the process.

That said, I think NU is doing a good job, and graduation is the best indicator of that, barring "special accomodation" in the academic arena, which I doubt happens at NU; I just wouldn't be in favor of lowering standards so far as to impact graduatioin rates and reputation.


On 5/29/07, Jeff Beamsley <jeff.beamsley at hilgraeve.com> wrote:
> Evan,
>
> Over the years, I think that we have established that there are kids 
> going to NU on athletic scholarship with significantly lower test 
> scores and GPA than non-athletes who were refused admission.  That 
> last numbers I remember reading suggest that a good football player 
> with an 1100 SAT has a chance at NU.  A non-athletic applicant has to 
> be somewhere north of 1300 to get a serious look.
>
> It is also probably no coincidence that a higher percentage of 
> football players, for example, share a specific major than the general 
> student population.
>
> However you choose to rationalize this, however, the key measurement 
> of admissions success for athletes and non-athletes is graduation.  If 
> a high percentage of these kids graduate and are employable (except 
> for maybe English majors), both the admissions department and the 
> university have done their job.
>
> I don't know where to look for employment statistics.  The graduation 
> rate statistics are on the NCAA site.
>
> NU does a good job, and this is certainly something to be proud of.  
> NU graduated 93% of all students in the most recent NCAA report and 
> 90% of student-athletes.  Duke was a little better, Stanford a little worse.
> Michigan, by comparison, graduated 87% of all students and only 78% of 
> athletes.  OSU graduated 68% of its students and 69% of athletes.
>
> When you dig down into the numbers on the NCAA site for graduations by 
> sport, basketball is weakest with an 88% Graduation Success Rating 
> (whatever that is).  Our minor sports and women's sports graduate 
> virtually everyone.
>
> So NU does appear to favor athletes both in admissions and curriculum, 
> but who cares if they all eventually graduate with a useful degree?
> Bienen, the deans, and the Athletic Department appear to have struck a 
> good balance between improving NU's athletic competitiveness, keeping 
> high academic standards, and graduating the kids that they bring in on 
> scholarship.
>
> Jeff
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com]
> On Behalf Of Evan Bradley
> Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2007 10:42 AM
> To: 'nwu-sports at tssi.com' Sports List
> Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Interesting interview with Tulane sports law 
> expert
>
> I'm not sure how admissions for athletes work currently, but if we're 
> not doing this already, I'm curious as to why we'd want to start.
>
> I'm all for recruiting the best athletes, but if a university admits 
> student-athletes who don't match the academic profile of the rest of 
> the student population, it's:
>
> a) setting these students up for failure in the classroom, thereby 
> lowering graduation rates and/or increasing the number of athletes who 
> leave early to go pro
>
> b) risking the reputation of a school where education is supposed to 
> be priority #1 by emulating some of the "lesser" schools lambasted on 
> this list for their stereotypical "dumb jock" rosters.
>
> The attitude at NU seems to have been that we'll win while keeping our 
> ideals, resulting in athletes that are known for being "smart," and I 
> think most fans are proud of that.
>
>
>
> On 5/28/07, Jim Bendat <thehaze at earthlink.net> wrote:
> > I'm not so sure that we don't already do that.  When my daughter 
> > began
>
> > her freshman year at NU in the fall of 2005, there were a number of 
> > athletes in her dorm who told her that they wouldn't have made it to 
> > NU were it not for their sports abilities.
> >
> >
> > MHRJGScott at aol.com wrote:
> > > I noted the use of "special admits" at Tulane, why don't we have 
> > > something like that?
> > >
> > > _http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-31/11803336
> > > 69
> > > 175280.xml
> > > &coll=1_
> > > (http://www.nola.com/sports/t-p/index.ssf?/base/sports-31/11803336
> > > 69
> > > 175280.xml&coll=1)
> > >
> > >

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