Athletes Suffer From a Double Standard

I am continuously disappointed by the treatment that athletes at Harvard and all Ivy League schools receive from presidents, teachers, and other students.Throughout the past year and a half, there have been numerous articles published, and highly publicized debates in the Ivy League, surrounding ways to reduce the perceived dumbing-down of Ivy schools by athletes. These kinds of criticisms, as well as various actions taken by the Ivy League over the past year to reduce the amount of time that athletes can practice during the school year, represent a shameful lack of respect on the part of other students and administrators toward athletes.

At a school so touchy of anything with non-politically correct overtones, students spout defenses against every stereotype from trailer trash to Muslim racial profiling in the same sentence that they call student-athletes “idiotic” and label them “dumb jocks.” There is also the fact that the Harvard athlete, like the Harvard cellist or the Harvard poet, contributes to rounding out the student body and protects Harvard from being populated entirely by people who spend their afternoons in the library.

However, the misguided stereotyping of other students can be overlooked. The policies of the Ivy League cannot. Officially ordering athletes not to practice is unfair and discriminatory, as are accusations of lenient policies towards athletes. Harvard admissions does not cater to athletes any more than it caters to other standouts in any field. Ivy League schools seek a well-rounded student body—as Princeton Dean of Admissions Fred Hargadon put it, “You can’t have all brass and no strings” in your school’s band. Furthermore, student athletes in the Ivy League have demonstrated a commitment to academics simply by choosing an academically top-tier school. A football player who only really wants to play in the NFL doesn’t go to Harvard, he goes to Florida. And the argument that Harvard seeks out athletes and not those who have excelled in other areas is also false—a serious flutist would be just as inclined to go to Juilliard, and may not have had their sights set on Harvard from day one. Thus Harvard, in accepting such a student, might have to consider that he spent more time practicing the flute, than, perhaps, studying for the SATs—and this fact does not make the flutist a weaker candidate. If, as Princeton’s former President Harold Shapiro said, admissions are at least partly based on “demonstrated leadership, hard work, initiative and commitment,” then there is no reason that athletics should not be considered a strong component to an application. If not, then similar dedication to activities outside the academic realm—like membership to national music associations, having art exhibited in a gallery or acting in a Broadway play—should also not be considered as factors in acceptance.

The accusation that athletics are too demanding and intense, putting a strain on academic performance, is also biased and unfairly aimed at athletes. As the Brown athletic director pointed out, “We aren’t telling the Brown Daily Herald or singing groups they have to [cut seven weeks out of their schedule.]” Harvard students dedicate untold amounts of time to other activities that take away from their academic performances. One example is a friend who sang with the Callbacks for all of sophomore year. I didn’t see her once—she was always practicing with them or away for singing concerts or world tours. The dance team’s website outlines rigorous standards that must be met by all participants, including attendance at all practices, Sunday meetings, workouts and performances. Writers and editors of The Crimson and other papers spend hours preparing the news, CityStep organizers spend the entire year preparing for their dance.

Neither other students nor school policy should single out athletes as the cause for academic woes, nor accuse Harvard athletes of being coddled through college. Harvard athletes work harder than the average student, know better how to balance their schedules and handle various commitments and do not receive any advantages, especially compared to athletes at non-Ivy colleges. And, even at Harvard, for every jock who doesn’t do the reading, there is a stoner or a singer or a playwright who hasn’t done it either—dumb jocks are not the standard. The Harvard athlete should be praised, because unlike other students who join activities throughout high school and college for the sole purpose of putting them on an application, Ivy League athletes exhibit a level of maturity and dedication well beyond that of their peers.You do not play a sport here just because you feel obligated to do something—especially Ivy League athletes, who are not bound by scholarships to play. You play because you love it. I urge the Ivy League presidents to head to the soccer field or the volleyball court or the boathouse, because nowhere on campus will they find more guts, more heart or more inspiration.

Leigh K. Pascavage ’04 is a government concentrator in Lowell House. She is a member of the varsity crew team.