Athletes Contribute to Harvard's Diversity

I am a football player. I am sorry if that angers anyone, or shocks anyone, but it's true. I will be a football player for the next three years, too. Sorry.

You see, it seems to me that this school is supposed to be the kind of place where diversity is appreciated and embraced, not repressed. And yet Benjamin J. Heller and Brad Edward White seem to disagree. In a dissent to a staff editorial they co-authored in The Crimson (March 2), they essentially stated that all athletics should lose all funding. So, athletics is not the kind of diversity they are looking for, I guess.

So, what is diversity? I always though it was a spectrum of beliefs, body types, looks, feelings, energies, passions and convictions. What Heller and White seems to say is: only if the diverse aren't these annoying jocks! As soon as limits begin to appear on diversity, diversity is lost.

I have been a jock for five years now. It has always carried a stigma with it, but never so pronounced as it is now at the "diversity capital of the world." Just because I am what some would call big does not make me stupid. I am shocked about the treatment that some of us "jocks" receive. It may be true that athletics is a good way to get into Harvard, but is that necessarily a bad thing? If we are to be a truly diverse community, we must accept physical as well as intellectual and artistic abilities into our midst. It's only fair.

I am not here just because of my athletic ability. I am now a government concentrator with a B+/A-average. I am going through a tough semester because I want to learn as much as possible while I am here, not because I want to play football. If I really wanted to just play football, I would be at some Division Three school, starting as a freshman. But I wanted an education. So, I'm here. As a result, I should be given the respect I deserve as a diverse member of this community.

The Athletic Department has come under fire recently about its funding policies to women's athletics. It is obvious to me that there is a discrepancy that should be corrected. But here I am addressing the obvious distaste that some members of our community have against those who have come here with brawn as well as brains. I may be here to play football, but I am also here to learn. I love the diversity I see here. I realize that without my athletic gifts, I may never have made it here. But that's just another part of diversity, and my diversity.

I would urge Mr. Heller and Mr. White to consider what they have said: "The University goes out of its way to recruit academically under-qualified candidates because of their revenue-earning potential." So now we have a cut-off point for grades? I thought that this was the place where the best came to learn, not just those who got a 1600 on the SAT's and a 4.0 GPA! Are you saying that diversity is welcome, but only if we meet some arbitrary grade standard? I'm sure there are a lot of people who are glad that the University does not follow the policy that you seem to advocate--it has been asserted that this school could have an entire class of valedictorians if it wanted to. By the way, mine were 1430 and 4.2.

So where are we? Have we begun to advocate limits on diversity? Is the athlete not welcome? Well, I hope not. I think that we can still live together happily, the athlete and the academician, rejoicing in our diversity.

I am a jock. I'm sorry, but it's what I am. It is what I will always be. That's just the way it is, and we have to accept it. Mr. Heller and Mr. White, accept me. Be glad that you can say you attend one of the most diverse schools in the nation. If you think our "jock problem" is bad, try Miami or Florida or Penn State. I think it will open your eyes to that fact that what we have here is one of the best schools in the nation. U.S. News agrees with me, and I really feel that our diversity, whether athletic or ethnic, is what makes it the best. Think about it.