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Student's have full access to all of the teams home games and practices. You can even find positions to volunteer and have as much access to the teams, personnel and equipment as you want.

Ever been to the on campus fitness center?...pretty good stuff here....

If anyone thinks student athletes have it easy, for the most part most of them workout year round, start early each day (cross country starts about 5am or so each day), travel on busses and study en route, get to the cafeteria late, physically tired a lot, etc...BMB members not far behind in time spent with band rehearsals, sectionals and individual practice time....

As to obesity, I have a child the local schools rate as obese which is a complete joke...the family physician basically laughs....if any of you saw him you would be shocked that anyone considers him obese.....

When I was in school, the SGA was made up of a bunch of nerd ferguson's that cared nothing about athletics or what it meant to the university. They spent more time and energy on whether UCA should get more coffee shops put into the student center than they did the overall well being of the university. The sad thing is that some of the people on the SGA board might even try and run for a political office one day.

Athletics brings in more money than any other program on campus thus they need to spend more. Every university athletic program in the country has large amounts of funds going to it, but in return they make quite a bit from these programs....

Here is a list of top athletic programs revenue and cost

1) Texas: 120 million made 90 million expense
2) Ohio State: 117 million made 75 million expense
3) Florida: 106 million made 70 million expense

The University of Arkansas made 75 million and 59 million in expenses

So basically what I'm saying is that athletics are a vital part to a university and whether or not the SGA wants to jump on board just shows they have no desire to support a growing revenue maker.

Obamacrats in the making no doubt.

Hmmm...Maybe the SGA can form an organization (RSO) and call itself, "Governors...a subsidiary of THE SGA" and fund themselves through the RSO route. ...hmmmm.

There's around 150 RSO's according to the master list of 2009. I wonder if half those even exist still.

That is a two way street, look at the literally millions of dollars drained from academic programs to fund athletics.




BearsFan52



Yes I have, but the price paid for it is up to double the going rate off campus.



Student athletes work hard, on and off the field, that is a given. But how hard they work is not the question. The question is- do they deserve such an out sized share of other students money?

UCA athletics do not bring in money, that is why the athletic fees are so high now and why the borrowed from other parts of the university earlier. The organized competitive UCA teams are a money loser. I wish that wasn't so, but it is.

ucamonkey,



Great if your a sports fan, but what if your not?



Given the stereotypes of athletics as thickheaded a-holes, how much volunteering do you think really goes on except for maybe among the Greeks? Becuase I work with many of them professionally, I know how dedicated and as often as not smart (if often overly focused) student athletes are. But the stereotype is there and sometimes it is deserved.

Watching athletes compete is entertainment for a good percentage of people. Watching kids study in the library is not.

As far as appropriating money to athletics as opposed to academics, I wonder just how much money goes to academic scholarships for students but yet some of those students never graduate? No doubt it's way more than what is paid to a student athlete that never graduates.

As far as the stereotypocal thick-headed a-holes, as you described them, for those of us who never belonged to a fraternity we always stereotyped the Greeks as a bunch of skirt chasing drunks. Kind of goes both ways doesn't it?

raverbear....I will be glad to help you find a new university.....so you really don't mind the amount you pay in fees it's just what it is spent on.....

I was a student athlete at UCA who did not receive an athletic scholarship, but rather came to UCA on an academic scholarship and walked on in the baseball program.

UCA student athletes are thick headed a-holes??? Or even perceived as such?

Obviously, anyone who thinks that has never taken the time to meet a student athlete. UCA has a great tradition, as do many universities, of producing extremely well rounded, intelligent, young men and women from their athletic programs. In addition to receiving a world class education while in college, these young people learn important lessons through athletics that serve them well in the real world that you don't learn in locked up in your dorm room playing World of Warcraft. I assure you student athletes possess much better time management skills than the average student.

Anyone that has a problem with student athletes at UCA should probably get out and get to know a few. You will probably be surprised.

You'd think that Raver there would like to use the training method of "spending outlandish money on campaining and advertising so your name gets out there." Heck, it's what Raver will be doing in politics anyway....Teague is only giving the SGA members a little practice.

If we could think of some way to find a correlation between athletics and left wing philosophies then I'm sure the SGA would be more than happy to put athletics down for at least half of their budget.

Raver Bear, I understand some of your frustrations but some of it might not be warranted. I was on an academic scholarship at UCA and was an invited walk on with the basketball team. I try to be an engaged alumnus of the school. The two most meaningful experiences I had were being in a fraternity and playing basketball. I also enjoyed the Wesley Foundation and made many friends that were not part of either of those specific groups. My company built a house for Habitat for Humanity this year. I invited UCA students from my undergraduate fraternity to work on Saturdays. The young people from UCA, many of them athletes, were the most polite, hard working people that contributed.

Instead of labeling an entire group because of a bad experience with a few, I would encourage you to continue to try and develop relationships with a broad spectrum of the student body, including student athletes. Both of my sons were student athletes, one graduated in 4 years with a 3.4 gpa, the other in 3 years with a 3.2. Athletics was a fun, meaningful part of their experience but making friends with a broad cross section of the student body, volunteering and serving others, and preparing for real life was their primary focus in college.

This quote is for all who seemed to have failed at reading comprehension and think I insulted the student athletes.

I did not label, here is what I said regarding student athletes.

Student athletes work hard, on and off the field, that is a given. But how hard they work is not the question. The question is- do they deserve such an out sized share of other students money?

and

Given the stereotypes of athletics as thickheaded a-holes, how much volunteering do you think really goes on except for maybe among the Greeks? Because I work with many of them professionally, I know how dedicated and as often as not smart (if often overly focused) student athletes are. But the stereotype is there and sometimes it is deserved.

UCA is obviously failing in academics based on some of the comments I read.

Honeybear,



The graduation rate at UCA is 42% 32% of the students on campus get scholarships averaging $6800 per year. This includes athletes and honors. The failure rate is 35-45% of students.

32% is roughly 3200 students so somewhere between 1120 and 1140 students drop out costing the University 7,616,000 to 7,752,000 a year. This is almost a million dollars less than the Athletic budget. Some of these dropouts are athletes so the real numbers are somewhat different.



A universities primary focus should not be entertainment, it is after all a school.

Bearcountry,



I'm going into politics? I didn't get the memo, nor am I on the SGA.

Guess we'll take your word for it seeing how you didn't provide a link. Thing about it is, the money you mention above is just thrown out the window. Nobody has to pay it back. At least with athletics some money is taken in thru ticket sales. Having a good athletic program also helps alumni donate not just to athletics but also to academic scholarships.

If UCA did not have athletics I would not have made it my school of choice. All of the universities I considered attending had to have an athletic program. Show me a school without athletics and it is almost a given that it does not have a very large enrollment.