In an urban studies class at the University of Tennessee, officials changed the grade of a student athlete four times, from an initial incomplete to a C, which took him off academic review.
Situations like this, according to two of four panelists in a discussion panel Wednesday, result from the emphasis on college campuses of athletics over academics.
The UW-Madison Center for the Humanities sponsored the discussion in Union South. Panelists included David McDonald, UW-Madison history professor and special assistant to the chancellor for athletics; Linda Bensel-Meyers, an English professor at the University of Tennessee; Gilda Hudson-Winfield, a former UW-Madison student athlete; and Murray Sperber, an English professor at Indiana University.
Although he agreed there has been a lot of corruption in the history of intercollegiate athletics, McDonald said the situation is improving.
\Certainly there have been abuses, but I would argue that now there is a better rein on the abuses than there have been in history,"" McDonald said.
Sperber disagreed, however, saying the intercollegiate athletics system is still very dishonest.
""The real world of college sports has always had major corruption,"" Sperber said.
McDonald commended intercollegiate athletics particularly for its position in diversifying college campuses.
""Intercollegiate athletics have been the greater inclusive factor since the 1950s with the visibility of minorities and women with Title IX,"" McDonald said.
Bensel-Meyers, however, said athletics programs at universities, particularly in the South, are undermining the values of the university.
""There are a lot of problems with the structure of higher education, and what will be the most 'profitable' for the university,"" Bensel-Meyers said.
Labeling the intercollegiate athletics system a ""plantation system,"" she argued the injustices are not only being done to the university community, but to the athletes themselves.
""When they come to UT, the athletes lose their civil rights to choose their courses,"" Bensel-Meyers said. ""We don't teach them to read or write before they leave. We [get] what we want out of [them], what [do they] get?""
Sperber also commented on the problem of the academic standing of athletes, saying it is not a ""dumb jock problem"" because the athletes are being exhausted by their sports and cannot perform satisfactorily in their academics as well.
""Physically and mentally the athletes are being exhausted,"" he said. ""Men and women who underachieve [academically] are working 30, 40, sometimes 50 hours a week in a very demanding job. Athletic scholarships are really a one year contract with the university.""
