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How to give student athletes a stronger voice on campus.
Student athletes are tomorrow's leaders. Student-athlete advisory committees on campus (SAACs) engage students in shaping the rules and policies that govern their lives. Having a voice today helps prepare them to be engaged, active citizens tomorrow.
"NCAA is the perfect laboratory to assess where athletes are, and where they could be in student development," said Lori Hendricks, a doctoral student at the University of Michigan and research assistant for the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good. A former student athlete, she coached in South Africa and worked for the NCAA from 1996 to 2001. She spoke at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) conference in Denver in March.
Power inequities abound on campus. Students look to authority figures for grades and recommendations. Student athletes may be the most vulnerable undergrads, whose financial aid and playing time hang on the coach's goodwill. From academics to eating disorders, students pay the price of today's win-or-die approach to college athletics.
Abuses featured in media scandals and the Knight Commission report inspired a number of NCAA reforms in the 1990s. Among them was a structure to give students a voice. "SAACs add credibility and legitimacy to the student athletes," she said. The NCAA requires all member schools and conferences to establish SAACs. Separate SAACs at the national level represent each NCAA division.
Hendricks has observed and taped SAAC meetings, looking at power issues and how the group comes together. She's seen solidarity among student athletes, often at the expense of coaches or rival schools, and a "trust gap" between student athletes and coaches/ administrators.
In SAAC meetings, female athletes spoke more, telling stories that differed from their male peers, about more positive, trusting relationships with coaches. But other students, both female and male, dismissed their experiences, instead of hearing and reaffirming the women's voices as part of a gendered student-athlete culture focusing on the male viewpoint.
Structure for success
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