[NU Sports] Must-read

[Beamsley, Jeff]

Agree with all you wrote.

I think it would be interesting landscape if the NCAA got serious about graduation rates and some benefit other than karma accrued to institutions like NU who are committed to graduating every freshman.

I don't have answers either.

What I do know is that our economic prosperity depends on our ability to maximize our return from both physical and human assets. The human capital theory suggests that education is the single most important investment a country can make.  That investment, however, is failing to produce the same results across the population.  I'm sure there is plenty of blame to go around, but at this point the question isn't who is at fault.  It is can we succeed and be globally competitive with the present system (in the broadest definition of that word) which is failing a significant segment of our citizens?

Jeff


-----Original Message-----
From: Roy S. Lamberton [mailto:rstetson at capps-assoc.com] 
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2012 12:15 PM
To: Beamsley, Jeff; hakirsch at aol.com; 'Dennis W. Brandt'; 'Jonathan Hodges'
Cc: 'Northwestern Wildcats'; nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
Subject: RE: [NU Sports] Must-read

The mentoring that almost all college athletic programs have embraced has obviously led to
improvements in grad rates - I can point to my own son,  who played Div III but who was
required to attend a study hall every night during his freshman year, and who moderated
the same study hall the next year.

The had a young man who came in to play football who could barely read, much less write. 

His teammates were charged by the coach to help keep him in school. They took turns waking
him up every morning for class, proofread his papers, worked with his reading and this
kid, who would probably have been a drug enforcer if he hadn't gone to college, got a 4
year degree on time!

Would any college given him that much attention if he hadn't been a football player?
Probably not, but this guy now has a degree and can do a lot more with his life than just
be a big guy sitting around.

I do get hot over programs who recruit kids who are talented athletes, who then figure out
how to "game" the system and just barely squeak thru their coursework until they no longer
have eligibility. You see it in High Schools - the star football or basketball player who
is more interested in scoring (at all levels) than learning anything.

Many of these kids have no regard for their fellow students, or their teachers, only
listening to their coaches, who really only want them to perform on the court or field.

I don't have an answer - maybe Bill Cosby was right. If the kids only worked on homework
as much as they work on their jump shot....

rsl

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate.
Computer Applications & Support Associates
Coach Roy's Random Thoughts - http://coachroy.org
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"Commissioner" Delaware American Legion Baseball
Director Media Relations - Little League 
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CTR2 USN (67-70) - CTRCS USNR (Ret) (64-67/70-95)
Northwestern University - Speech 1974 - 
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-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of
Beamsley, Jeff
Sent: Friday, March 16, 2012 10:34 AM
To: hakirsch at aol.com; Dennis W. Brandt; Jonathan Hodges
Cc: Northwestern Wildcats; nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Must-read

I agree that the additional help that minority athletes get seems to have a positive
effect.

The NCAA ads that are running now during the tourney promote that fact without mentioning
the racial gap in athletic graduation rates. 

Jeff


-----Original Message-----
From: hakirsch at aol.com [mailto:hakirsch at aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 8:54 PM
To: Dennis W. Brandt; Beamsley, Jeff; Jonathan Hodges
Cc: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com; Northwestern Wildcats
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Must-read

Not sure who is at fault. But if Jeff is correct that the graduation rate for African
American student athlete is that much higher than non athletes it suggests to me that the
universities on average are doing everything they can to help the kid get through and
remain eligible at least until his final season's semester/quarter.  If so, then athletics
are a net positive for bridging the race education gap 

Harry

Harry
------Original Message------
From: Dennis W. Brandt
To: Beamsley, Jeff
To: Jonathan Hodges
To: Harry
Cc: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
Cc: Northwestern Wildcats
ReplyTo: Dennis W. Brandt
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] Must-read
Sent: Mar 15, 2012 5:54 PM

<The REAL issue is that there is a 28% difference between white (88%) and African American
graduation rates (60%) at NCAA sanctioned schools, and the graduation rate for African
American male <students who aren't athletes is 22% lower than that.

<This isn't an indictment of universities or athletics in particular, but rather a
question of how we as a diverse society can expect to prosper when we are failing to
prepare our minority kids for the most <reliable path to a good job - a college degree.

And this is entirely the fault of the American education system? 



Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

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