Integrating Athletics with Academics

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Whit Haynes

St. Lawrence athletes are experiencing a new kind of achievement that stretches well beyond the win or loss column. By the time they graduate, their academic performance is equal to their non-athlete counterparts, university figures show.
Comprised of 32 teams, athletics encompasses about a third of the student body at St. Lawrence and the university says they are completely representative, participating in a wide range of student activities and choosing majors in every field.
Saints skier and soccer player Megan Howard, a junior and also president of the students athletic advisory committee, says this integration into the school “both enhanced and put a little stress” in her life.
“On top of all the school work I have to do and the teams I am participating in, I’m also trying to be an active member in the community, so juggling three things can sometimes be a little overwhelming.”
In the recent past, this kind of academic and co-curricular engagement by athletes has been a rarity at many highly selective institutions.
In a study of intercollegiate athletics at 30 universities and colleges, James Shulman and William Bowen reported in their 2001 book “The Game of Life,” that athletes earned lower grades than their non-athlete counterparts, were underrepresented in the natural sciences like biology and chemistry and were disconnected from extracurricular activities.
 According to statistics compiled for a 2008 SLU Board of Trustees meeting, there is no significant difference in the type of majors that athletes and non-athletes declare. For instance, 26 percent of athletes are completing degrees in the natural sciences and mathematics, which is 2 percent higher than for non-athletes.
Examining participation in semester-long study abroad programs, athlete participation is slightly lower than for non-athletes but it has substantially increased in recent years.
 The four-year graduation rate for intercollegiate athletes is, on average, 6 percent higher than for non-athletes. For Division I athletes – skiers and men’s and women’s ice hockey players – the graduation rate performance is even higher.
President Dan Sullivan attributes this record to feeling “no pressure to win at all costs in athletics.” He said that he noticed “qualities that make athletes successful are qualities important in students who do physics” or other degrees. The drive to succeed, discipline and hard work are all precursors to achievement in any of life’s laboratories. If athletes have what it takes to be successful in one respect, then they can surely do the same in another.
Christine Zimmerman, director of institutional research at St. Lawrence, credits some of athletes’ academic success to Sullivan’s decision 12 years ago to move the supervision of sports from Student Life to the academic dean’s office.  It wasn’t that Student Life was inadequate, but rather that it enabled a greater integration of the athletics division into Academic Affairs and emphasized that “athletics are really important at SLU in supplementing the academic mission,” she said.
Having athletes fully represented in the cultural, social and academic aspects of college life, according to Sullivan, is “about choices and recognizing what kind of institution you want to be.”
Franco Bari, a 1998 St. Lawrence graduate and now the university’s head women’s soccer coach and coordinator of student-athlete development, agrees with Sullivan and has seen it firsthand. He says, “There is more emphasis on academic development for students now. The athlete who is on campus now is much different than the athlete who was on campus ten years ago.” Bari attributes that change to “the trend and the change of standards, in particular the academic standards.” He said St. Lawrence has always been a strong academic institution but now students seemed more prepared to commit to their academics.
“One thing we explain to the current students and also the prospective student athletes is that academics come first. It is your number one priority.”
This requires a larger vision of who each athlete is, Bari said. “We believe that they are here to get a quality education, not just the classroom experience but the holistic experience … We know that [athletics] is just one facet of their experience that they take very seriously … There’s more to them than that.”
Continuing to acknowledge a larger perspective for athletes will be crucial to the continuation of their academic success. Athletic Director Margie Strait said in a recent interview that faculty and coaches are “all engaged with student-athletes to foster their development. Therefore, it will remain critical that integration for athletics be part of the mission supported by the athletic department and the university.” She said her conversations with Bill Fox have reassured her that he will continue this approach.