The fight for priority registration for student athletes at Stan State has always been on the fence whether it should be granted or not.
According to the Associated Student Inc. (ASI) President, Brandon Demers (senior, Political Science), he wants the topic to be voted on during this year’s Academic Senate Meeting, if not next year.
Last semester, the Athletics Department put on an event for students, faculty, staff and student athletes to sign a petition for priority registration. The goal was to get at least 15 percent of the non-athlete student population to sign the petitions.
Devin McCoy (sophomore, Communication Studies) says, “In regards to athletes, one can’t just get their game or practice slotted for a different time. So, it just makes sense to allow the students who represent our university to be able to have the opportunity to get the courses they need at the times they need.”
Being a full time student and part time worker, McCoy says he also has a busy schedule, but understands that student athletes deserve priority registration.
Madison Sikiric (sophomore, Communication Studies) says that although she does not support priority registration for student athletes, she does find it “unfair” that Stan State is the only CSU to not offer such thing to its athletes.
“I don’t exactly support priority registration for student athletes, but I do think it is unfair that we are one of the few CSUs that don’t honor that for them,” Sikiric said.
Sikiric also said that she did not sign the petition for student athlete priority registration because she feels indifferent about the topic.
Demsen Mcfaddin (junior, Business Administration), a non-athlete student said, “It feels like our needs are not important, and we are losing seats in classes that we need, especially since we are a commute school, so I do not really support it fully.”
The position of students on the subject is very spread out, but many students have claimed they are also unaware of this proposal being presented to the Academic Senate.
Demers, who is also a non-athlete student, says that “[Athletes] took so many classes that weren’t pertinent to their major. So, it is actually taking away classes from non-athlete students, taking away spots in classes they don’t need.”
According to Gabriel Bolton, Coach of the Women’s Soccer, not only will priority registration for student athletes benefit students, but it can also benefit faculty and staff. “There will be less times where faculty have student athletes missing class for travel or for games. There will be less work for the faculty when it comes to trying to accommodate student athletes in having them make up assignments because there will be less assignments that have to be made up,” he said.
Student Athletes make up 0.03 percent of the student population as Stan State, according to data compiled in the Academic Senate Transcript, 2016. Demers said it should either have zero net affect, or even benefit the entire student population by opening up classes if priority registration is granted to student athletes.
There has been a lot of preparation, research and time put into this data of support for priority registration. The ASI board has compiled actual data and statistics about the different kinds of athletes and what they endure, income, race, ethnicity and other factors to support why they need priority registration.
Stan Sate is the only school in the CSU system, in the DII CCAA conference and within the region, including community colleges, that does not have priority or early registration for student athletes, according to the Academic Senate Transcript, 2016.
There have not been any updates on what the members of the Academic Senate think about the subject of this proposal. Brandon Demers said that “It’s a proposal with all of these reasons why student athletes need it and then we are going to schedule our meeting with them. I have met with the person who is in charge of the Governing Board, which is the speaker of the faculty, one of them is elected every year. Right now, it is Dr. Katherine Davis, and I met with her and let her know we are pursuing this again this year, like they did two years ago.”
Priority registration is a make or break for recruiting, and with better recruitments there will be better success for Athletics.
Demers said “It brings in donors, sponsors and recruitment numbers. With more numbers, the higher the student population and graduation rates are. So, 10 years, 30 years down the line, my degree will mean more because athletics has furthered the name of this university.”
There have been many cases where student athletes have had to enroll in extra semesters, which delays their graduation. Jack Large (sophomore, Criminal Justice), a Stan State baseball player, knows of a few instances he has seen this happen.
“There are two guys on my team that have had to come back for a fifth year because they lacked the ability to get classes they needed earlier on in college,” Large said.
Athletics and ASI have collected useful arguments, which they hope will result in the passing of priority registration. The Academic Senate should vote by the end of this semester.
Demers added: “For students, the biggest part will be coming to the Academic Senate Board Meeting. Attending, and making it clear that our students and student athletes alike support it, and we’ll never stop collecting petition signatures.”