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GIVE STUDENT-ATHLETES THEIR FAIR SHAREBy Dick MeisterFirst it was the highly exploited graduate students who, as teaching assistants, conduct most classes in America's colleges and universities. Then it was equally exploited medical students - the interns and residents who do much of the work in the country's teaching hospitals. Now come the basketball and football player -- so-called "student-athletes" -- whose play brings hundreds of millions of dollars to their schools, but who often don't get even an education in return. They also are talking union -- and for very good reason. They are probably the most exploited of all. Teaching assistants and medical students have been seeking -- and in some cases have won -- improved pay and working conditions through unions they have formed in affiliation with the Service Employees and other major white-collar unions. But they also have turned to several blue-collar unions, primarily the Auto Workers, that have expanded into white-collar fields as their core of blue-collar workers has shrunk. That's what at least one group of student-athlete organizers has done. They've gotten financing and other support from the Steelworkers union in an attempt to improve their status. The initial demands of their Collegiate Athletes Coalition, made up of former college players, call for: Granting full health-care and life insurance benefits to student-athletes; cutting back the mandatory practices and workouts that take up most of their day; increasing the meager stipends paid them during playing seasons and easing the restrictions on how much they can earn from outside jobs in their off-seasons. "We have year-round workouts and we risk -- and sustain -- injuries in behalf of our institutions. In football we even risk our lives, not to mention bringing in huge amounts of money to our institutions," notes the coalition's chief organizer, Ramogi Huma. He's a graduate student at the University of California at Los Angeles who was a starter on the football team there until sustaining a career-ending injury. Huma's group wants above all to make guaranteeing athletes a true education the top priority of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that governs college sports. Less than half of student-athletes graduate -- as few as 10 percent at some major schools -- and only about 1 percent make it into professional sports. It's frequently said, however, that while in college student-athletes get a lucrative "free ride." Well, here's what most of them actually get: scholarships covering tuition, room and board and maybe a few other expenses plus, in some cases, a little under-the-table money from team boosters. The few superstars destined for high-paying professional careers also may get illicit payments from sports agents who want to represent them when they turn pro. Whatever the athletes get, it's only a tiny fraction of what their play brings the colleges and universities that recruit them strictly to help their teams win games and thus increase school income. Schools with winning teams get the big bucks, most notably by selling television rights to broadcasters who use their athletes in what is mainly an attempt to peddle fast-food, beer, sneakers and anything else that might bring a profit. Coaches also do very well. Those at major institutions can make annual salaries in the high six figures and get almost as much in addition by endorsing products, outfitting their players in particular brands of footgear and engaging in other less-than-ethical commercial ventures denied their supposedly amateur players. There are exceptions, but at most of the schools, the athletes are fortunate if they even attend many classes, given their heavy practice, game and travel schedules. "You're not a student-athlete but an athlete-student," notes Isiah Thomas, who left the University of Indiana to star in professional basketball for the Detroit Pistons. "Your main purpose is ... to be a ballplayer, to generate some money, put people in the stands. Eight or ten hours of your day are filled with basketball, football." Most of the grossly undercompensated athletes are simply being cheated out of an education. It's common at many major institutions for athletes to retain their eligibility to play by being credited for course work they didn't do, tests they didn't take and papers someone in the athletic department wrote for them, or by being given higher grades than they actually earned. Some spend what little classroom time they do have studying such weighty matters as the theory of basketball or football. Once their athletic eligibility is used up, no more such favors are granted, they lose their scholarships, and out into the cruel world they're tossed, often with no employable skills. Some would-be reformers argue that the only way to clean up the corrupt mess that big-time college athletics has become would be to embrace pure amateurism. No scholarships, no players who weren't legitimate full-time students, absolutely no special treatment for the athletes or their coaches, no TV deals. It would be sport for the joy of sport, not sport as highly profitable commercial entertainment. Nice idea, but forget it. Highly influential colleges and universities, their alumni and coaches, TV broadcasters, advertisers and the other powerful forces who profit so heavily from the status quo would never allow it. Nor would most of the fans whose money fuels the system. But granting a fair share of the loot to the players who are essential to the making of big profits should be a quite possible reform. Even a former executive director of the NCAA, Walter Byers, says "dramatic changes are necessary to permit athletes to participate in the enormous proceeds." Maybe help could come from the National Basketball Association and National Football League, which use colleges as training grounds for their future players without charge. Or maybe, as some have suggested, colleges themselves should turn pro, assembling squads of openly paid non-students to represent them in collegiate minor leagues. The players would be encouraged -- or required -- to use the money to get a college education in the off-season or when they quit playing. Others suggest colleges could pay current players, but put the money in trust funds of, say, $30,000 to $50,000 a year that they could collect only if, and when, they graduated. No significant reforms will be accomplished, however, until student-athletes join in effective solidarity. Like teaching assistants, medical students and many other exploited groups inside and outside academia, their only real hopes lie in forming strong unions. Dick Meister is a freelance columnist in San Francisco who has covered labor and educational issues for four decades as a reporter, editor and commentator. Copyright c 2001 Dick Meister. |
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