Report of Faculty
Senate Committee
on Priority
Registration for Athletes
April 18, 2002
The committee met several times on the topic
of priority registration for athletes. As individuals the members of
the committee were split in the manner that priority registration is
viewed across the country: one very much for, one very much against
and several in the middle ground. The overriding consideration was
the issue of fairness in a student body that may have many groups and
individuals with a similar or greater need for priority registration.
At this time we are not prepared to recommend that URI adopt priority
registration for athletes, but based on our explorations we are not,
as a group, ready to entirely dismiss the process for the reasons
outlined in the following.
The case for :
1. Inability to match class with practice,
game and travel schedules. Controlled by the NCAA, Atlantic-10 and in
the future in some sports by the Convocation Center
Management.
2. Student athletes sometimes take reduced
credit loads, which puts them behind non-athletes of their own
original class year resulting in a later registration date.
3. Success and failure of athletes
academically is public information and often widely disseminated.
Priority registration will allow students to get an ideal schedule
that will meet NCAA progress requirements and not just a full
schedule.
4. 1997 NCAA Certification Peer Review Team
recommended "consideration be given to Priority Registration for at
risk sports".
5. Planning for student athletes goes far
beyond URI. What student athletes do, and even take for courses is
partly governed by the Atlantic 10 and NCAA. An example of this would
be progress towards a degree that goes beyond just credit loads, but
speaks to actual course progress.
6. Given the demands, athletes have a
particular need for a structured day.
7. Student athletes work for/represent the
university according to schedules that are beyond their control. This
is also a group that the University has made a sizable financial
commitment to.
8. Priority registration can provide an
advantage or level the playing field in recruiting.
9. The override process turns some athletes
into beggars who must plead their case semester after
semester.
10. Thus far athletics is the only group at
URI to speak up and request priority registration. Allowing priority
registration for athletes does not mean that other groups may not
also request consideration.
11. If this is a problem, then why would you
not want to help?
The case against:
1. General principle of fairness.
2. Can create athlete only classes or easy
schedules.
3. No real knowledge of what the impact on
availability of classes will be for other students given the fact
that URI does not have a surplus of course openings.
4. No real idea at this time of the extent of
the problem at URI.
5. Many athletes already receive significant
consideration; study halls, special advisors, tutors
Other Factors:
Currently only Disability Services provides
students with priority registration. This amounts to about 500
students and about 120 actually take advantage of the process.
When looking at institutions that offer
priority registration for athletes, the only other group that is
sometimes included is honors students. Best estimate is at URI about
300 athletes would be eligible per semester. If we figure that one
third would not need it due to their advanced class standing this
would move about 200 students to the head of the line of a 13,000
student registration pool.
Nationwide no figure is available, but the
practice is common. At this time one half the A-10 schools offer
priority registration. From a post from the National Association of
Athletic Advisors list-serve provided on 4-16-02 comes the following.
"I received 94 responses, 78 (about 84%) stating they had some type
of early registration, 16 responses that registration is done during
the regular student registration, with five of those sixteen
attempting to change the current policy to some type of early
registration". This from a question asked by an advisor at McNeese
State University.
Suggestions:
1. The Student Senate and/or University
College consider holding an open forum on the topic of priority
registration to allow all concerned student parties to be heard.2.
Determine the actual impact that priority registration for athletes
would have and what the real need is. For first-year students this
could be approximated by an exit survey after Summer
Orientation
3. Formation of a focus group/committee to
look at a priority registration policy for the University, and not
just student athletes.
Murn Nippo, Chairperson
Patricia Burbank
Chet Hickox
Rick McIntyre
Belinda Pearman
Deborah Riebe