athletes

Frequently Asked Questions from Academic Advising: Campus Collaborations to Foster Retention

Q. Currently, 30% of the student body at our Division I institution are student-athletes. How does the panel feel about pre-registration for student-athletes?

I am not sure exactly what the questioner means by "pre-registration", but will assume that it has to do with giving student-athletes priority in the registration process. Perhaps the question should be framed more broadly as "Should any special group of students be given a priority in the registration process?" For example, in addition to student-athletes, what about disabled students, honor students as a perk, or senior vs. freshmen? The question for any institution to answer is why should a group be given a special priority. This might have to do with special circumstance such as what difficulties might be encountered for disabled students when courses are not available in accessible locations. For student-athletes, the issue might have to do with how much do required practices interfere with available time slots to schedule courses. One might also ask, do all student-athletes need priority? Perhaps, there is a circumstance where a case could be made for students in certain sports. Ultimately, this comes down to the values that the institution holds. If the institution believes that disabled students or honor students or seniors or student-athletes should get priority because these students represent some sort of "special" populations, then that would how an institution would want to show its values or commitment. My own sense is that most priority systems are in place because schools are often not able to provide for all the scheduling needs when students want them and thus need to have a priority system. Perhaps the emphasis should be more on anticipating scheduling needs and providing sufficient sections rather than developing elaborate priority systems which seem to favor some students over others.

Eric R. White, EdD

Penn State University
'05 NACADA President