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The Rice Thresher
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Joshua Ginsberg Special to the Thresher You've got to give them credit for trying. The Student Athletics Committee has discussed ways to try to incorporate the colleges, including having them nominate a sports representative, sponsor individual games, hold training camps where varsity athletes can work with college sports teams and design cheering materials. Athletics Director Bobby May worked to negotiate more athletics games played on KTRU 91.7 FM. They've initiated a rewards system where-by students are bribed with prizes for regular attendance at games. They've even legitimized student support of athletics by getting an official club aimed at Rice spirit approved by the Student Association Senate. The Athletics Department and the varsity athletes have tried in every way they can fathom to get the undergraduates of Rice involved in supporting them. As of yet, all of these efforts have failed. You also can't blame them for trying. Every year, Rice competes with schools like Stanford, the Ivies and Northwestern for a certain group of intelligent, high school athletes who could go to a top-tier university even without their athletic talent. I'm surprised that Rice even includes watching a home game on the itinerary of these prospects, where they see the rows of empty bleachers at Autry Court and the sparse and unenthusiastic student fans. My high school of 300 students drew bigger crowds then Rice does. The type of student that Rice enrolls is not one who will support varsity athletics. Rice's nationwide reputation of the best value in private education attracts a value-conscious student. Try taking a value-conscious student, taking $24,000 of his money, investing part of it in an athletics program which loses an undisclosed sum of money every year and then asking that student to support that program. They won't do it. They see athletes getting scholarships, guaranteed on-campus housing, private tutors, special facilities and special services from the Athletics Department not offered to other students. Many Rice students resent the athletics program because they feel it's a misallocation of their hard-earned dollars. Additionally, Rice's college-centric culture further promotes the divide between athletics and the students. Students direct their loyalties to their colleges before the university. Pride in the colleges causes Wiess' Battle Sows to draw stronger support than Rice Owls' basketball. Pride in Rice doesn't exist on the scale of pride in one's college. Students see supporting college athletics as supporting their friends, but the same can not as easily be said about varsity athletics. Rice athletics, both varsity and club, are a few inches shy of violating Rice's policy against exclusive fraternal organizations. Varsity athletes from several sports enjoy private dining at Sammy's rather than sharing dinner with the rest of their colleges. Members of athletic teams often get off-campus houses together. Most athletes rarely socialize within the colleges. They rarely actively participate in college life. Most non-athletes can count on two hands the number of athletes they socialize with regularly, and of those, a disproportionately small number are on the football, basketball and baseball teams. In light of Rice's egalitarian charter, athletics seem to be an institutionalized exception. The Athletics Department's goals are noble and their efforts are genuine. But until they and varsity athletes stop seeing themselves as separate from the colleges, any attempt to garner support from the student body will be met with resistance. Joshua Ginsberg is a Wiess College junior.
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