Year in and Year out, Wave athletes rank among the nation’s best. But what about their academic performance?
By Kyle Jorrey–Sports Editor &
Joann Groff–Assistant Sports Editor
NOTE: This is part one of a two-part series examining the life of a student athlete at Pepperdine University.
A month ago Sports Illustrated ranked Pepperdine No. 50 on its list of America’s best sports colleges. The next runner-up in the West Coast Conference — Portland, at No. 119.
And earlier this year the university finished 43rd on a ranking done by U.S. News & World Report of the nation’s top academic schools. Once again, the highest showing by a school in the WCC.
According to statistics like these, Pepperdine, when compared to the rest of the universities in the WCC, stands head and shoulders above the rest — both in its athletic and educational programs.
But what about when these two fields come together? What about the student athletes at Pepperdine?
Are the top-rated athletes that make up Pepperdine’s consistently successful programs getting a top-rated education as well? It’s a question that all major universities must face when trying to maintain a balance between the pressure to exceed on the field and in the classroom.
According to a 2002 NCAA report based upon student-athletes receiving athletic financial aid and entering the school in 1995, the graduation rate was 56 percent for Pepperdine athletes, compared to 70 percent by all students entering at the same time. This is the second lowest graduation rate in the WCC, ahead of only the University of San Francisco (46 percent).
But what do these numbers really mean, and do they truly reflect the experience of the student athlete at Pepperdine? Administrators and the student athletes themselves say no. Below is a look at this subject by the sides that know the issue best.
Student athletes and Professors
Now starting his fourth year playing basketball for the Waves, Dustin Johnson knows what it’s like to face the pressure of both a rigorous practice and a rigorous final exam.
Each semester he faces a regimented schedule meant to balance his time between basketball and studying to get a degree in business. On average during the season, Johnson is either in class or in the gym from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m.
“The only time I ever have to study is at night time, or sometimes between classes from 10 o’clock until noon,” Johnson said.
Because of his role on the basketball team, Johnson has to think twice before scheduling an all-night study session or a morning cram before a test.
“If I get up at 7 a.m. or I go to sleep too late, I’m going to have a poor showing in practice because I’ve been up studying,” Johnson said. “It’s hard to find a balance between the two.”
Through it all, Johnson has maintained over a 3.2 GPA and will graduate with his class on schedule in the spring. He credits his success to the regimented basketball schedule that allowed him little free time to slack off.
“It’s made me focus more on my classes and what I do with my free time than I would have if I had just been a typical student,” Johnson said. “If I wasn’t playing sports I would have so much more time and I wouldn’t need to work near as hard. It’s been a challenge, but it’s helped keep me in line.”
Like other Pepperdine athletes, Johnson is allowed to register early before each semester, getting to choose his classes before they are opened up to the general student body. He uses this opportunity to schedule classes that best fit his schedule, and will be least interfered with by his time away for games.
“You get an adviser like any other student and normally one coach on the coaching staff to help you out with choosing classes,” Johnson said. “He tells you what classes might be more difficult, and ones you shouldn’t take. They are really helpful.”
In addition to the day-to-day struggle between the physical strain of practice and the mental strain of classes, student athletes like Johnson must also deal with absences. Away games and tournaments can cause an athlete to miss valuable time in the classroom, and for this reason, it is up to each athlete to discuss with their professors issues like make-up exams, homework deadlines and class notes. Johnson said he will typically miss one class four or five times in a semester, but sometimes up to eight times if the Waves make it to postseason play.
He said his teachers at Pepperdine, for the most part, are willing to work with student athletes to help them get done what needs to be done to succeed in a class like any other student.
“They know the pressure you have on you, and they are good about letting you make up work or exams,” he said. “They’ll give you leeway – give you more time on an assignment, or let you drop an assignment and put more weight on another. I’ve been lucky, most of the teachers I’ve had have been really understanding.”
In the spirit of this issue, the Seaver Faculty Association approved a resolution 7-0 last semester that asked professors to make accommodations for student-athletes on scholarship teams that have to miss class time. According to Dr. Don Shores, faculty athletics representative, the bill was well deserved by the athletes.
“To keep their scholarships they have to travel with their teams, and professors were telling them that to pass their class they have to be in attendance,” Shores said. “This was a double bind that I don’t think was fair to put the students in.”
The resolutions reads, “When students are required to be absent from class for NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic competitions or the debate team, the university has an obligation to help the student negotiate these obligations.”
The suggested accommodations listed are assigning alternate work, apportioning the weight of missed assignments among the remaining assignments, and creating make-up tests when feasible. These are meant to help athletes who miss class through no fault of their own.
“Being a student-athlete is like having two full-time jobs,” Shores said. “You go to class 14 to 16 hours a week, and you’re practicing 14 or 15 hours a week. It’s a pretty rugged life.
“I have great admiration for those students who excel in class and in the athletic arena,” he said. “They are very gifted individuals.”
As far as the university’s 56 percent graduation rate for scholarship athletes, Shores says that while it is a concern, the numbers are somewhat misleading.
“If in 1995 we brought in four baseball players on scholarship, and three of them got drafted to the majors as juniors, then our graduation rate for that team is 25 percent, even though we’ve done nothing wrong,” Shores said. “The only mistake we made is recruiting a great player.”
The faculty adviser said that athletes leaving school early in sports like baseball and basketball is something that can’t be avoided.
“I wish our college athletic programs weren’t used as farm teams for professional sports, but that’s just how it’s developed, and Pepperdine can’t change that,” Shores said. “This is something not reflected in that 56 percent graduation rate.”
Shores also pointed out students that transfer to other schools and graduate aren’t figured into the statistics either.
Mathematics professor Dr. Kevin Iga has been teaching student athletes at Pepperdine for a number of years now, and like others, he said the X-factor is the approach the student takes to the class.
“If a student has to miss a lot of class for any reason they have to take the responsibility of learning in their own hands,” Iga said. “And the extent the student is willing to do that is the same extent I’m willing to help that student out.”
Iga explained that athletes must complete all of the course requirements in his class, but are allowed some flexibility in the time and manner in which they do so. For example, if an athlete will not be in attendance the day of an exam, he sometimes asks a coach to administer the test for him. He asks that the students take it on or near the actual day of the test.
He pointed out that just like the normal student population, some athletes excel in his class, and some don’t.
“We’ve had some student athletes be among the top students in a major, and we’ve had some be very poor students,” Iga said.
Political science professor Dr. Joel Fetzer said he is willing to help out a student athlete as long as the athlete puts forth the proper effort.
“If they’re consciously doing the work in my class and doing a very good job, that is very challenging, so I want to cut them a little slack,” Fetzer said. “But I’m not very sympathetic if they’re using athletics to get out of class and use it as an excuse.”
With less than a year left until he graduates, Johnson is still hopeful of playing semi-pro basketball somewhere out of the United States. But he is confident that if his hoop dreams fall short, the education he received while at Pepperdine will land him a job as soon as he’s ready to get one.
“I feel just as adequate as any business major I’ve met,” Johnson said. “There are some people who obviously got better grades and have better knowledge, but that’s how it is for all students. I think if I was just a regular student I would have less to offer going into a work environment because I wouldn’t have all those other experiences.”
Despite what others may think, Johnson said the life of the student athlete at Pepperdine is a far cry from what is depicted in Hollywood movies. There are no secret envelopes full of money, no free cars and definitely no free rides from professors.
“There’s people who say we get off because we’re athletes, because they see us missing class and not having consequences or not having to run in P.E. because we have practice,” the senior said. “And yes we definitely catch little breaks here and there, but it’s not like someone else is getting cheated. The breaks we do catch are well deserved because the time and commitment we have to put in to do something to represent our school – that goes for athletes in any field.”
November 07, 2002