2008 Woodie Awards
Letter: Criticisms of athletic scholarships, other advantages unfounded
Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: Opinion
To the Editor:
In the April 2 edition of The Hawk, Stephanie Mullen began her article "Scholarship Allotment System May Overemphasize Value of Athletic Abilities" with what seemed like an attempt to open up the classic brawn versus brains debate.
Unfortunately, rather than fairly examining two human characteristics that are often used to separate and compare competitors of various means, she continued to instead to make a series of uninformed and miscalculated observations about the student-athlete population of Saint Joseph's. I would like to address the misleading statement that student-athletes receive an average of $20,000 in merit scholarships.
First, that data is severely skewed by the fact that men's and women's basketball players at St. Joe's are all on full scholarships unless they are walk-ons. If Mullen had taken a closer look at the average achievement scholarship on a team-by-team basis, she would have seen a much lower and, perhaps to her standards, more reasonable figure.
Secondly, she never mentioned that there is a portion of student-athletes whose scholarships also include awards for their academic achievements.
So, not only are those students dedicating 30 plus hours a week to athletic competition, they are also expected to maintain the GPA that the rest of the awarded student body is held to.
It is important at this point to notice another average, which is the 30 plus hours a week a student-athlete puts into preparing and competing for his or her sport.
I'm pretty sure the average non student-athlete at St. Joe's does not put that much time into a part-time job, studying, or even a social life.
A 2.0 is a C, indicating an average performance. I know plenty of student-athletes who perform well above this level semester after semester.
The average academic performance of those that do have C averages should be acceptable considering the number of hours they are putting into something else, that something else being athletics, which is extremely worthwhile for the school and community.
In the April 2 edition of The Hawk, Stephanie Mullen began her article "Scholarship Allotment System May Overemphasize Value of Athletic Abilities" with what seemed like an attempt to open up the classic brawn versus brains debate.
Unfortunately, rather than fairly examining two human characteristics that are often used to separate and compare competitors of various means, she continued to instead to make a series of uninformed and miscalculated observations about the student-athlete population of Saint Joseph's. I would like to address the misleading statement that student-athletes receive an average of $20,000 in merit scholarships.
First, that data is severely skewed by the fact that men's and women's basketball players at St. Joe's are all on full scholarships unless they are walk-ons. If Mullen had taken a closer look at the average achievement scholarship on a team-by-team basis, she would have seen a much lower and, perhaps to her standards, more reasonable figure.
Secondly, she never mentioned that there is a portion of student-athletes whose scholarships also include awards for their academic achievements.
So, not only are those students dedicating 30 plus hours a week to athletic competition, they are also expected to maintain the GPA that the rest of the awarded student body is held to.
It is important at this point to notice another average, which is the 30 plus hours a week a student-athlete puts into preparing and competing for his or her sport.
I'm pretty sure the average non student-athlete at St. Joe's does not put that much time into a part-time job, studying, or even a social life.
A 2.0 is a C, indicating an average performance. I know plenty of student-athletes who perform well above this level semester after semester.
The average academic performance of those that do have C averages should be acceptable considering the number of hours they are putting into something else, that something else being athletics, which is extremely worthwhile for the school and community.
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