Community Building Argument Paper

When people generally think about college, the first thoughts that come to mind are: academics and athletics. There is the gaining a degree side of college, as well as, the game day side of college. In Roger Pielke Jr.’s editorial “Why Not a College Degree in Sports”, he attempts to introduce the need for the merging of these two sides of college. He does this by introducing the idea of making sports a major. With the help of multiple scholars, Pielke explains the need and availability of such investment. The money-making aspect of the profession should be taught in the classroom to the upcoming athletic classes, and professors giving insight to the students on the abuse of athletics can help these athletes further succeed in their sport. The

In his article “The Shame of College Sports,” Taylor Branch (2011) describes how universities are focused on advancing and receiving money from major athletics and having star athletes, but how the universities are not caring for the “student athlete.” The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has made college sports into an unmerited business. However, as years progress more athletes are getting smart and are taking the NCAA to court. The more students that challenges the rules by the NCAA and take them to court, the secrets and undermining values of the NCAA come out and the closer the NCAA comes to an end.

It centers on teaching virtue, including such ideas as liberty, respect, and moral courage. Joe Ehrmann fights for the educational value of athletics “and describes it as a classroom and thus cocurricular rather than extracurricular. “The term ‘cocurricular’ designates sports as an educational activity with the potential to develop the social, academic, moral, civic competency and emotional, of every student athlete. Extracurricular sports merely need players and a coach; Cocurricular, a classroom after class, sports demand student-athletes and a teacher-coach” (Ehrmann, 2011 p 159). Ehrmann describes the many virtues and how they can be applied both inside the athlete and outside. Included are values, such as justice, empathy, and

The NCAA believes “that a student-athlete is a student first and athlete second.” Student-athletes benefit more than from playing a sport that they love. The graduation rate is higher among the student athletes than the general student body. “NCAA studies show that student-athletes enjoy high levels of engagement in academics, athletics and community: have positive feeling about their overall athletics and academic experiences: attribute invaluable life skills to being a student-athlete: and are more likely to earn similar or higher wages after college than non-student athletes.”

Sports, especially football, are a major part of the universities in the United States. Many times they are valued over education. Many college athletes end up getting a poor education, because they tend to look at how the universities sports teams are doing rather than the level of education they will be getting. Steven Salzburg notices this problem and writes about it in his article “Get Football Out of Our Universities.” He acknowledges the fact that we have prioritized a game used to entertain people over the education of Americans and that this trend has to come to an end. According to him, football needs to be removed from the university system in order to avoid becoming “the big, dumb jock on the world stage” (1). Salzburg uses a combination of ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos in an unsuccessful effort to persuade universities and avid football fans that the interest in football is jeopardizing our advances in science, technology, engineering, and math.

The competitive athletics programs of member institutions are designed to be a vital part of the educational system. A basic purpose of this Association is to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body and, by so doing, retain a clear line of demarcation between intercollegiate athletics and professional sports (NCAA, 2011).

College embodies a time where young adults explore both who they want to be and what they want to do. An important part of this journey is the involvement in extracurricular activities, such as athletics, Greek life, or academic clubs. In particular, athletic clubs can be overlooked by many students. To many, it is harder to join a sports club that seems to require certain skills to enjoy it or to feel apart of the community. This is why many shy away and choose to focus solely academics or join Greek Life because it seems easier to feel included in these. Yet, I think that athletics create a more well-rounded, more positive atmosphere than other clubs. Athletics offer a rich community based on teamwork and loyalty while developing life skills

College athletics had its beginning in 1852, with a crew race with Harvard and Yale as its participants. (Rentz, Hamilton H, 2011). The National Collegiate Athletic Association has reported over a half million students who participate in college athletics each year. (2014) Also all one has to do is go to their universities athletic department to see the melting pot of diversity represented in all the different sports, and with diversity brings diverse needs. “Athletics is often referred to as the front porch of the institution and our student-athletes are the hosts” (McCollum 2009). Student athletes are generally thought of as the ambassadors of the university. Athletes and athletics are also what most people associate with various colleges

Jordan Larson (1955) speaks of this in his article “Athletics and Good Citizenship”, “I believe that athletics in our high schools, properly handled help to develop good citizenship.” The overall attitude toward high school athletics is extremely positive in these relating articles. Further and more recent research shows that females who participate in high school athletics and more prone to graduate from college (Troutman, Dufur 2007). Troutman and Dufur (2007) conclude that females who engage in interscholastic high school sport have higher odds of completing college than do their counterparts

“The majority of student-athletes report that they are actively involved in their campus community outside of athletics and believe that their athletics participation has benefited them socially” (NCAA, 2015). A research study done by the NCAA examined social participation across several platforms. They are as follows; performance

We interviewed Tyler Webb, a UCF undergraduate student majoring in athletic training. He has interned with some of the local Tampa, Fl high schools and is currently working with the UCF athletes. His sport passions include football, baseball and the medical/scientific aspect of sports. This interviewee emphasized how sports is not only about the competition aspect but also about giving people something to connect with. Sports not only create a sense of community but, also provides a financial revenue for the area surrounding any team. He mentioned that there are many different relationships connected to sports; economic, social, cultural, religious and political.

In the United States today there is a heavy emphasis placed on sports and sporting activities. Every public school, middle and up, offers some sporting program, and most private schools do as well. The real issue at question is whether sports are affecting the education of students and young adults, who may have carried their sporting career into college. In general, people of all ages spend a lot of time both in person and on TV watching sports, not to mention those who are actively participating in the sporting event. With sports taking up most of a student 's free time, some pose the concern that sports are taking too much time, and the students are unable to focus on their education. One may even make the argument that the United States culture as a whole focuses more on the success in sporting activities than they do the quality and level of academics that student athletes uphold. However this is untrue, it "hardly ever comes up in domestic debates about America 's international mediocrity in education” (Bowen and Hitt). With that being said, it is safe to say that sports have considerably more benefits than they do drawbacks. Sports are an excellent way to help to teach students of all levels many different valuable skills that can translate over into their chosen work field, or just life in general. Although the United States ranks lower than others academically, sports help students of all ages with both leadership and teamwork skills, as well as being an exemplary

The idea of playing sports both collegiately and professionally is dreamed by many children, students, and individuals as they grow up learning and playing the different sports that they come to love. However, this dream ultimately becomes shattered when the realization that they are not good to play and compete at the next level. In some ways, this system provides an essential lesson that people need to know throughout life, and that is not everyone is going to be good enough and that is alright. There is no room for growth if everyone is told that they were good enough. Today, as a society, the vast majority is moving to a system that says everyone is a winner just for participation, and yes, this is important to a fault, yet children and students need to understand the value of winning and losing and the vital lessons that can be learned from both sides. Intra-Collegiate Athletics has some great ideas that are worthy of implementing, but on the other hand, what could be lost from Intercollegiate Athletics might outweigh the benefits gained from a transition to Intra-Collegiate Athletics. The real goal is to understand what the mission statement of the university is, as well as, the athletic department’s mission statement how they relate and what would change in the transition including its impact on the university’s mission statement.

Many critics stereotype athletes to be these young cocky jocks who only care about how they look physically and the big game that night. But clearly in today's society student athletes are making a strong effort to destroy that reputation. By athletes getting involved in the school's campus life as well at the community, they are showing that their lives aren't all about sports. NBC News writer, Lisa Heffernan, shows just exactly how students are becoming involved in the school in her recent article titled “College Athletes Find Success in College and the Workplace”. She writes “Athletes were more likely than non-athletes to say that they had a professor who cared about them as a person and were more involved with campus clubs and organizations.” (Heffernan). It is very important for an athlete to become close with a teacher or professor, because being an athlete means road games and possibly missing class which is never easy to do. Another statistic Lisa Heffernan points out, is that sports kept students in school and at one school for all four years. Statistics show that “Despite the time demands of playing for a team, athletes were highly engaged in campus life. They were far less likely to transfer (39% vs. 22%)...” (Heffernan). A school's mission should be to better their students and want them to stay at school for all four years. One way this is possible is by motivating students to participate in sports as well as clubs and organizations.

Athletics play a huge role in education at both the high school and college level. However, there has emerged two popular theories; the academic and the developmental, about athletics/extracurricular activities that researchers hold. The academic perspective sees athletics/extracurricular activities as something to do for fun, to relax, but not important in the purpose of schools and can even be detrimental. The development perspective on the other hand views athletics/extracurricular activities as important as academics in the development of the individual (Holland & Andre, 1987).