Opinion |

Hug me, I’m a cheater

UMaine athletes get the upper hand

By Marshall Dury

Posted on Monday, November 10th, 2003, 12:00 am

The unholiness that is the registration for the Spring ‘04 semester here at the University of Maine is upon us, my fellow students. Let me be the first to tell you that it is all right to cry, to throw your phone against the wall, and have childlike temper tantrums. As a senior, however, I enjoy the seniority of registering for my classes with fellow seniors. Logical, isn’t it? This is all well and good until I caught wind of a practice here at UMaine that unsettles me a bit.

Athletes participating in coveted sports such as baseball, basketball, softball, swimming, track and – who can forget – ice hockey have what could be considered a special privilege. Rightfully, the senior student athletes on this campus are given the same treatment as your average UMaine senior student. When it comes to lower level student athletes, however, the department of Academic Support Services for Student-Athletes have given them a bit of a loophole. These students can register with seniors. Yes, you heard me correctly. A freshman track runner or sophomore softball player gets to endure the pain that is registration with the seniors of this fine campus.

I enjoy the sports programs on this campus, but I feel like athletes are already given enough special treatment. I have witnessed the leniency of numerous professors for athletes who miss class because of meets or games – or their debilitating “injuries” that always flare up come test time. I don’t want to go into the disregard some athletes have for their fellow students – assuming they somehow don’t have to abide by the regular rules that are set up for every other student here – that’s a column in and of itself.

Student-athlete registration is a crock and it disheartens me that something like this is possibly shortchanging the average UMaine student. The constraints of any athlete’s particular daily sport practices certainly need to be worked around – I can respect that. What I cannot respect is the elevation of athletes onto a status level that is above their academic standing. The credit hour requirement that is designed to keep certain students from registering at certain times is set up for a reason: To keep things running fairly and smoothly for the rest of the student body. Whoever thought that superceding this rule was fine by the student body has got another thing coming.

I’ve heard reasons for this process placed on the shoulders of the athletes themselves – that UMaine is having a hard time getting some athletes out of this institution in four years. Academic work habits aside, it’s not the general student body’s responsibility to pay for the desire certain athletes may have or fall victim to by staying here for more than four years.

Hypothetically, when I register as a senior early Wednesday morning, I could be competing for a 400 level English class with an underclassman who is a member of the baseball team. I’ve busted my hump for the past four years to have some semblance of pride and privilege in being a senior – not high school type pride, but I like knowing how the system works for my own benefit. For the student-athletes of this campus to inadvertently – and by mostly no fault of their own since someone else has given the permission for this rule – overwrite the rules and regulations that every other videogame playing, non-jersey wearing student must abide by is wrong.

I can understand the necessity in giving UMaine athletes some leeway in how their school and sports schedules interact. What I cannot understand is why they need their own set of rules. Isn’t the system already tailored enough to their personal needs? If I’m not mistaken, everyone’s primary drive for being here, ideally, is an education. It’d odd how training and competition schedules are worked around with special athlete rules. Tragically, those same rules thrive on the potential sacrifice of your average tuition-paying student … just like you.

Marshall Dury is a senior English major.