No special treatment
Athletes receive no privileges for scheduling, housing

Editor's note: This is the third in a three-part series on athletes and academics. Today's story focuses on scheduling and housing.

By NAINA NARAYANA
Collegian Sports Writer

When it comes to schedules, student-athletes are some of the busiest people on campus. But when it comes to scheduling classes, getting excused from classes and living arrangments, they are just like the rest of the student body.

But most athletes must schedule classes around practices and games.

Kristen Lindgren (senior-landscape architecture), a member of the women's golf team, said she does not get any special privileges other than being able to register at the Academic Support Center for Student-Athletes instead of using the University's telephone registration system.

For football players, scheduling classes can become a problem. The times they can attend classes are limited because they practice at about 2 p.m. every afternoon during the fall semester.

Don Ferrell, academic adviser for the football team, said the time between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. is blocked off for football practice on players' schedules. Football players give him their schedules and he enters them into the University registration system when the telephone registration period starts, he added.

Ferrell said he starts by registering those players with the highest number of credits and works throughout the semester to schedule the rest.

Sometimes, athletes can encounter problems scheduling classes for their majors if they meet in the afternoon. Ferrell said they look for alternatives such as night classes.

Also, if a class for a player's major is offered only in the afternoon, coaches will sometimes let players miss part of practice for it, said football player Mike Carroll (sophomore-administration of justice). Football players have more leeway in scheduling these kinds of classes in the spring semester because they practice three days a week in the late afternoon, Carroll said.

Former Lion swimmer Michael Chang (senior-administration of justice) said other athletes sometimes run into scheduling problems. The members of the swimming team cannot have 8 a.m. classes due to early morning practices, he added.

Chang said being an athlete does not mean that he gets any special benefits.

Field hockey player Jill Pearsall (senior-psychology) said scheduling around practice times was stressful as an underclassmen because the number of credits she had prevented her from scheduling earlier.

But one thing student-athletes do not usually have a problem with is getting excused from class due to tournaments or matches. Athletes follow a standard University procedure by notifying professors at the beginning of a semester about the dates the athlete will be absent.

However, some athletes occasionally run into a problem. Chang recalled a time when a friend of his had a professor that would not excuse an absence for a Big Ten tournament. After some discussion with the athletic department, the problem was resolved.

An advantage athletes often receive is the chance to live with fellow teammates who understand what they are going through.

Jason Smith (junior-English), a member of the track team, said one of the advantages he received as a freshman athlete was that he got to live in Centre Halls instead of East Halls. He was also assigned to a room with another track team member who had a similar schedule and interests.

Football player Freddie Scott (junior-labor and industrial relations) said living with teammates promotes close relationships between the players. Scott said he has lived with his teammates since his freshman year.

"It's good to know who you're playing with on the field," he added.

But athletes are not placed together in particular halls or dorms due to NCAA policy, said Associate Athletic Director Ellen Perry, adding that coaches can request that athletes to be put in one particular area such as Pollock Halls or West Halls.

Room assignments can also be given on the basis of convenience. Lindgren said all the women on the golf team who live on campus live in West Halls because it allows them to be closer to their practice facility.

"The coaches really have no power to put them in such and such a room," said Chang, former president of the Student Athletic Advisory Board. "As far as requesting a certain room, they can't do that."

Perry said athletes at Penn State have never had an athletic dorm.

Pearsall said it is important for athletes to get to know students other than their teammates while living in the dorms, especially during their first year.

Under NCAA policy, colleges are not to arrange space in dorms or apartment buidlings where more than 50 percent of the residents are student-athletes.

Currently, the University's housing office reserves 20 percent of the spaces in dorms for housing athletes, sororities, University scholars and interest houses, Perry said. Out of these spaces, the housing office tells coaches where rooms are available to house their freshmen athletes, she added.