Athletes receive top treatment

Friday, May 8, 1998

Athletes receive top treatment

ACADEMICS: Special perks provided at No.1 sports school in
country

By Meghan Ward

Daily Bruin Contributor

Voted the No. 1 athletic university by Sports Illustrated, UCLA
is home to 21 varsity teams and 18 intramural sports. Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar and Jackie Robinson rank among the top student
athletes turned professionals to come out of UCLA. NCAA regulations
require UCLA athletes to maintain a minimum of 12 units per quarter
and a 2.0 GPA.

In order to accommodate their schedules, UCLA provides a long
list of perks, including priority enrollment, priority parking,
their own department in college tutorials and a separate book line
where their books are prepackaged and prepared for pick-up. Not
everyone thinks athletes should have special privileges.

"I think it’s ridiculous. I don’t think they should have
priority because there are a lot of people that don’t even have the
opportunity to go into athletics because they have children or they
have to work," says Sheyda Harounian, a third-year English
student.

Like second-year English student An Phung, many students are
under the false impression that UCLA gives preferences to athletes
because "football and basketball make a lot of money for the
school." UCLA officials claim that the athletic department is a
self-supporting entity. According to the athletic department’s
budget for 1997-1998, neither of these claims are valid.

Of last year’s $27,038,799 in athletic department revenues,
$2,265,544 came from student registration fees. The rest was raised
through ticket sales, donations and television programming fees.
After $27,199,525 in expenses, the department netted a loss of
$160,726.

"There is a theory and a history that a successful
intercollegiate athletic program assists in the overall fundraising
for the university. A fine intercollegiate athletic department is a
part of the overall image of the institution," Pete Blackman,
administrative vice-chancellor of UCLA, explains.

Alumni are the primary targets of fundraising campaigns at UCLA.
Keith Brant, executive director of the alumni association, says
that in years that UCLA has won the basketball championship or the
Rose Bowl, there was no marked increase in alumni membership.

Tracy Christenson, director of the Annual Fund, and Mike Eiker,
assistant vice-chancellor for development, agree that there is no
data correlating a successful year for the athletic department with
an increase in the overall fundraising for the university.

"My opinion is that there is no connection," Eiker says. "There
are many factors that go into why someone gives a gift or not,"
Christenson echoes.

However, as Blackman emphasizes, the athletic department "is a
focal point of spirit for undergraduates, alumni, students and
faculty. The pride translates into an affection for the institution
and this affects one’s days at the university and for alumni, the
memory of those days." There is no discounting that good memories
equal good donations.

As Karen Mack, development publicist, points out, the university
also has the opportunity to share information through articles in
game programs about university activities and receives 30 seconds
of air time to advertise the university on national television.

Another source of income generated by the success of UCLA sports
teams is through the sales of clothing bearing the UCLA logo.
However, Fred Klein, director of apparel and accessories for
ASUCLA, says that their emblematic department does not get impacted
by a specific performance of a major sports team so much as by the
long term record of the team. "The UCLA football team beating USC
for the seventh time had more impact on Bearwear than the
Cottonbowl," Klein says. After a percentage of profits has been
paid to the athletic department, the remainder is recycled back
into the ASUCLA fund.

Does an increase in Bearwear sales mean student athletes should
have priorities that other students do not? Alana White, a
fourth-year English major, does not think so. "It annoys the hell
out of me. It’s almost like this detachment from the real world,"
White says.

Mark Dellins, director of sports information, insists that
student athletes "don’t have to pay for their books, but they don’t
get to keep their books either." According to Dellins, the reason
student athletes have privileges like a separate textbook line is
that they have time constraints.

Erica Gomez, point guard for the UCLA women’s basketball team,
practices three hours per day, six days per week and does weight
training for an additional four hours per week. That’s 22 hours of
practice in season and approximately 9-10 hours of practice out of
season, not including time on the road. Gomez is taking 12 credit
units.

"I hope they’re getting good grades because I don’t know if they
practice 30 hours a week, but there are a lot of people that work
30 hours per week. They’re getting pampered and I hope that when
they graduate they will get a job in sports because they’re not
going to be pampered like that in the real world," says Alicia
Dunams, a fourth-year English student. Dunams works 30 hours per
week at HBO pictures, takes 16 units and pays all her own
bills.

Cade McNown, starting quarterback for the football team, argues
that student athletes need priority parking near their work-out
facilities in order to make their practices. "If you look at any
other campus in the country you’ll find that everybody’s got
(parking) lots right next to where they work out and they’re
student-athlete only lots. We don’t have any of those
privileges."

Fall quarter there were 10,875 students who applied for parking
and there were 7336 permits sold. That means 3435 students had to
take van pools, ride the bus, pay more money to park in a private
lot off campus or arrive long before class and pay $5 for a UCLA
day permit. According to Erica Gomez, as long as she gets the
application in on time, she is guaranteed parking.

"It’s not fair. There are so many other students I talk to that
don’t have a car. They have to take the bus. They couldn’t get into
the class they wanted because it was full, and it’s so
frustrating," said Harounian.

Another problem many students face is trying to enroll in the
classes that they want. Professor Chris Cunningham teaches English
178, an American cultural studies class. Cunningham was forced to
refuse many students admittance to English 178 because his class
filled up before the end of first pass. However Jamie Oenning, a
student in Cunningham’s English 178 and a guard for the women’s
basketball team, had no trouble enrolling in the class.

According to Dellins, the reason athletes have priority
enrollment is that they spend so much time on the road. "The
basketball team leaves Wednesday at 5 p.m. They aren’t here
Thursday or Friday. If Thursday was the day they had to sign up for
classes and parking, that would pose a problem."

Unlimited tutorial services is another incentive for
student-athletes to attend the No. 1 athletic school in the
country. They are encouraged to sign up for individual or group
tutoring for all of their classes, according to Tamrat Beyene,
director of college tutorials for athletes. The tutorials take
place in the evenings in order to accommodate the practice
schedules of the athletes.

Though most athletes are tutored 1.5 hours per week per class,
some seek up to four hours of tutoring per week per class. All
classes have review sessions for midterms and finals and if an
athlete goes on the road and has an exam upon return, special
arrangements are made to provide weekend tutoring.

"If we don’t have a tutor for a particular class, I go out and
get one," Beyene says. There are about 750 athletes total and 550
to 650 receive tutoring. There are 80-85 tutors for athletes
alone.

Around the corner from athletic tutorials sits Erika Andrade,
receptionist for the composition and ESL tutorial services.
According to Andrade, tutoring for the rest of UCLA is only
available for math, science, composition and ESL. There is no
receptionist in the math and science tutorial department. There are
not enough tutors for composition and ESL.

"I’m assuming the reason is funding. We have to turn down a lot
of students. Like next week we’re all booked," Andrade said.

Cheryl Flenoy, director of financial operations for honors and
undergraduate programs, says that UCLA budgets $61,450 for athletic
tutorials and the athletic department makes up the difference.
Beyene estimates that for the 1997-1998 school year, the athletic
department’s contribution to athletic department tutorials will
approximate $120,000. According to Dellins, the tutorials reserved
for athletes do not subtract from services provided for the rest of
the university because the athletic department is recharged for the
money given to them. Tutorial administrators were unavailable to
confirm this claim.

The budgeted allotment for college tutorials for the 22,239
remaining undergraduates is $164,000, less than triple the amount
for 30 times the number of students. Tutoring in individual classes
is nonexistent. "People call in for accounting, statistics and we
just don’t have the money," Marian McBride-Luman, program assistant
for college tutorials, says.

Some students complain that athletes are permitted to take exams
on the road and that they often miss class and turn in late
assignments. Frank Stephens, director of student services for the
athletic department, says that athletes who take exams on the road
are given the exam by a proctor who sends the exams via Federal
Express back to the professor.

Gomez confirms that she has taken one exam in her hotel room on
the road and that her coach acted as proctor while she took the
exam. McNown says that he has never missed a class or an exam for
football-related reasons.

Professor J.K. Lew, who teaches Atmospheric Sciences 2, says
that when he has a whole team in his class he has them take the
exam while they are on the road. If just one or two students miss
an exam, he excuses them from the exam. "The policy is we don’t
change the dates," Lew says.

Professor Cunningham argues that before we challenge the
privileges of student-athletes we need to examine why anyone should
get preferences.

"Why honors students? Why disabled students?" Cunningham
questions. His policy is that if anyone gets sick on the day of an
exam, he will give them a make-up exam. He does not give athletes
special treatment, but he does think that athletes are more
comfortable asking for deferment. "Other students are afraid to
ask," Cunningham explains.

Shawn Phillips, a fourth-year economics student, does not have a
problem with athletes getting special treatment either. "I’m an
honors student so I get preferential treatment too. Athletes go out
and risk their lives every day. It’s a small price to pay for the
university to give them parking and books."

Though life may seem unfair to non-athletic, non-honors
students, McNown points out that there are drawbacks to being a
high-profile athlete as well. "For example, if I want to go to
dinner and I’m with a friend and they want to pick up the tab
that’s illegal," McNown said.