08-26-2020, 07:37 PM
It has been decades since I taught at Stanford, so I cannot intelligently comment on whether Ms. Lee's comments are accurate for Stanford.
However, I recognize a great deal of what she says for my current (state) institution. Our athletes do get substantially more academic resources than our average students. On the one hand I think it is great that the academic achievement of our student-athletes has dramatically improved over the last 15 years since this policy began. But the academic achievement of ALL of our students would have improved had all of them received the same level of counseling, tutoring, enforced study-hall, etc. I've heard serious student-service professionals discuss trying to find the funding to give all of our students the same level of academic support that our student-athletes receive--but they always fail to do so. As a result, our student-athletes now have a higher GPA and a higher 4 year graduation rate than the student body as a whole. I am proud of their academic achievements but saddened at the unequal treatment our other students receive.
Now, consider that the scholarships of our student-athletes are mostly paid for by student fees. Namely, our average students pay hundreds of dollars a year above tuition to fund the special services that the athletes receive and that they (the typical students) don't get. Few of our students understand this, but once in a while they do the research and figure it out, and then they are bitter. They sound a lot like Ms. Lee.
Now, let me say something about the assertion that student-athletes work hard--20 hours a week--and other students are not in a position to criticize. Well, I worked 20 hours a week in Green Library shelving and checking out books the whole time I was a student at Stanford, and I was not an athlete. In my era Stanford had more than 1000 students on work study like me. We worked our way through Stanford, too, and we contributed to the University while we did it.
I hope Ms. Lee is wrong, and that Stanford these days is nothing like my current institution. But I would not reject her criticisms out-of-hand.
However, I recognize a great deal of what she says for my current (state) institution. Our athletes do get substantially more academic resources than our average students. On the one hand I think it is great that the academic achievement of our student-athletes has dramatically improved over the last 15 years since this policy began. But the academic achievement of ALL of our students would have improved had all of them received the same level of counseling, tutoring, enforced study-hall, etc. I've heard serious student-service professionals discuss trying to find the funding to give all of our students the same level of academic support that our student-athletes receive--but they always fail to do so. As a result, our student-athletes now have a higher GPA and a higher 4 year graduation rate than the student body as a whole. I am proud of their academic achievements but saddened at the unequal treatment our other students receive.
Now, consider that the scholarships of our student-athletes are mostly paid for by student fees. Namely, our average students pay hundreds of dollars a year above tuition to fund the special services that the athletes receive and that they (the typical students) don't get. Few of our students understand this, but once in a while they do the research and figure it out, and then they are bitter. They sound a lot like Ms. Lee.
Now, let me say something about the assertion that student-athletes work hard--20 hours a week--and other students are not in a position to criticize. Well, I worked 20 hours a week in Green Library shelving and checking out books the whole time I was a student at Stanford, and I was not an athlete. In my era Stanford had more than 1000 students on work study like me. We worked our way through Stanford, too, and we contributed to the University while we did it.
I hope Ms. Lee is wrong, and that Stanford these days is nothing like my current institution. But I would not reject her criticisms out-of-hand.



