8 Thursday, February 28, 1974 University Daily Kansan From Page One It Takes a While, but Most KU Athletes Do Graduate Oakson, a former football player who is in his fifth year at KU, says, "I think it's getting normal for a lot of students, not just athletes, to take five years to graduate." Bobby Skahan, who played quarterback on KU football teams in 1964-66 and now beads the academic counseling department within the athletic department, gives a more positive answer, but only slightly more so. "It is difficult to graduate in four years, good grades in high school and as a result, "I really pressed to make good grades, Prepared or unprepared, when they get to college all athletes face the same problem of trying to find time for sports, studies and leisure activities. According to Skahan, on weekdays Football players, for example, face a schedule during the season so rigorous as to leave little free time anytime during the week
Years needed to graduate4 and summer school$4^{1/2}$55 and summer school$5^{1/2}$6 or moreNever
44520122
1964 2044520124
1965 29152411114
1966 2863250138
1967 27292251161
1968 2994642142
1969 30426510210
1970 2563180115
1971 27923010012
1972 29612712-10
1973 26404----18
Totals: 27069233537781972
Per cent: 10025.58.51313.72.63726.7
Qualifications: an athlete in the "55" category hasn't necessarily attended school five and one-half years continuously. He may have attended four years, dropped out for a year and then earned his degree in one additional semester. but it can be done, "he says. "It all depends on the dedication of the athlete." A small number of athletes who graduated in five years may have been drafted. Skahan cites examples like Delvin Williams, star halfback on KU's 1973 Liberty Bowl team. As a freshman, Williams had to pay expenses out of his own pocket because his college entrance exam required him to qualify for an athletic scholarship. BUT HIS FIRST semester at KU, Williams made better than a C average, and he'll graduate in May with a degree in education after only four years of college. But Williams is an exception, and Skahan knows it. He knows it from his own experience. Now well on his way to an Ed.D. in higher education and administration, Shankan took one half-year to earn his B.S. in business. Part of the reason it's so difficult to graduate in four years is that athletes often aren't as well prepared for college as nonathletes. Skahan says. "I really wasn't prepared to go to college, he says. "I played space and tennis," he said. "The college athlete puts a lot more emphasis on his athletic ability than academics in high school," he says. "All of us are guilty of it. We will try at excel when we are合格, but then when athletes come to college they quickly learn there's going to have to be a change." GALE SAYERS, KU'S All-America half-book in 1963 and 1964 to now an assistant coach at the University. "It was the same way in college for the first year and a half. But then I woke up and I thought what if I get hurt and I started thinking about getting my degree." Of course, not all athletes ignore academics in high school. "It depends on what your family expects out of you," says Bob Braugging, another former football player spending a fifth year at KU. Bruegging says his older sister made players eat breakfast at 7 a.m., attend class until 2:30 at the latest, appear on the practice field at 3:15, leave at 5:30, return to 7, study from 7 to 16 and then to be bed. Saturdays are taken up with a game and unwinding both physically and mentally. Sundays players play Saturday's game film and begin preparing for next week's No matter how time-consuming a sport is, though, athletes must be enrolled in 12 hours when their sport is in season to begin training and they must pass 24 hours of courses a year. OAKSEN SAYS IT isn't uncommon for football players to enroll in 14 or even more hours at enrollment in August and then drop to six or eight hours the day after the season ends because they are hopelessly behind and finals are approaching. That's why many athletes must take correspondence courses during the summer months. Keeping up with school work also depends on not wasting a lot of time each day, says Teresa Larson. "You've got to really budget your time wisely, which I did not 'do,' he says. "I realized about my junior year what I should be doing as a freshman and sophomore." Brugging says that he used to worry during his classes about practice in the afternoon and that he would be too tired with it, or just not even interested in studying at night. TOM KIVISTO, a senior and captain of KU's basketball team, acknowledges the fatigue faactor and says, "It's a decision to study or to be heck with it." Kivisto admits it's tough finding enough time to study during the season but says, "just part of the sacrifice you're going to make is not of a varsity team and to be on scholarship." A premed major, Kivisto took $ 19 \frac{1}{2} $ hours Archaeology Degree Altered The archaeology degree from the department of classics is being broadened to make it available to those interested in learning about the ancient world, Michael H. Shaw, assistant professor of classics, said recently. The degree requires a minimum proficiency in Greek and Latin because some archaeology courses aren't taught in English. Shaw said there was a trend across the country toward such a broadened degree. He said enrollment in the classics was an issue for many majors and at other schools in the country. in archaeology but who enjoyed learning about the ancient world. Shaw said the degree was expanded in response to requests by archaeology departments. There are three major requirements for the rewritten degree—a minimum proficiency in Greek or Latin, 30 hours of courses involving classics and a comprehensive examination to be taken in the final semester. Details of each individual degree will be worked out between each student and his or her teacher. With This Coupon Buy 2 Tacos Get 1 TACO GRANDE Good Every Day Except Wednesday TOSTADO FREE! Offer Expires March 15 9th and Indiana 1720 W. 23rd But most KU athletes aren't Tom Kivistos, and that's why KU has an academic counseling program. And it's a counseling program that has come a long way. last semester, including chemistry and physics courses, and still made the honor roll. "IT WAS ALMOST NIL, when I was here," he says. Freshman football players live on the same floor in Jayhawker Towers with Skaham, attend a two-hour study hall five nights a week their first semester and participate in an orientation session during the first two weeks of study hall each fall. Skahan, who played football with Sayers, says that when he was in school one of the football coaches handled the academic problems that existed. 1974-Year of the Taco Skahan says freshman football players face the added burden of adapting to a different system of football in addition to being a new living and academic environment. Skakan says athletes receive more help from his office as freshmen than during any other part of the school. "It's extensively different now," he says. Number one, the counseling program has. "It's not that hard." Although freshmen receive a special emphasis from Skahan, most of the academic counseling department's services are directed toward all athletes. The department's tutorial service is one of those. The service consists of 40 tutors, who are paid $4 an hour and are capable of tutoring athletes in 70 areas. "THAT'S PRETTY DIFFICULT for a 17 or 18 year old." he says. "A tutor can't help unless you know the subject matter," he says. Athletes are advised by Skahan to read and study course materials before considering asking for a tutor. Skalian cautions, though, that tutors aren't a panacea for academic difficulties Skahan's office is also open to athletes with emotional problems. Lots of athletes, especially freshmen who are lonesome or frustrated, come in for counseling, he said. "I've never gone in with academic problems, but I've gone in and talked to him A question that looms even larger than the purpose of the department concerns whether academic counseling should even exist. Critics of the program say that athletes are the recipients of enough favors, financial and otherwise, and that academic counseling is just another service that doesn't exist for the nonathlete or is available only at his own expense. "I don't think athletic counseling is the right thing to do," says Kivisto. "A scholarship is just that, help financially, and advantageens the normal student doesn't have." “IF ATILETES CAN’T find it on their time and in their own initiative, can’t straighten out problems on their own, then they must be doing in the type of person we’re recruiting.” Yet Kivisto didn't attend an all-black school where academic standards are so low as to barely prepare a student for any college, let alone a major university like Purdue or one of the high academic standards. It's the black school who needs the most help, says Skahan. Sayers says coaches used to urge the "poor kids, especially the black kids from the ghetto area" to declare a major during the season. They said the sense of direction and purpose of women "BUT WHEN YOU GET into the school you find that after two years it isn't an easy major and you have to take a lot of difficult courses that even doctors have to take," he says. Sayers agrees because of his own experience. Without an academic counselor to guide him, Sayers says, KU coaches pushed him into a major immediately when he came to UM. In his case it was physical violence, so the assumption that it was an easy major." Because of such former practices, Sayers says, an athlete "needs someone like a Bobby Skahan to channel him into the right frame of mind." Skahan does his best to get athletes into that "right frame of mind," but what about all those Rogers who, despite Skahan's efforts, haven't won a title without a desire? What brushes them out? "Kids today for some reason have a greater interest in academics," says Years needed to graduate | | 4 | 4 and summer school | $4\frac{1}{2}$ | 5 | 5 and summer school | $5\frac{1}{2}$ | 6 or more | Never | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Basketball | 34 | 12 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | | Per cent: | 100 | 35.3 | 5.9 | 13.8 | 5.9 | 0 | 0 | 8.8 | 35.3 | | Boillit | 150 | 35.3 | 10 | 8.8 | 24 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 35.3 | | Per cent: | 100 | 22.6 | 6.5 | 8.4 | 15.5 | 3.9 | 3.2 | 6.5 | 35.3 | | Track | 84 | 12.6 | 11 | 19 | 13 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | | Per cent: | 100 | 26.2 | 13.1 | 22.6 | 15.5 | 1.2 | 3.6 | 7.1 | 10.7 | Sayers see the two objectives as being intertwined. Three athletics participated in track and football and their graduation records were shown. "MY FIRST OBJECTIVE in my job is want the kids to graduate," says Skatan. "My second objective is to make sure they know what then what it takes to remain eligible." Skahan says football coach Don Bambrough and basketball coach Ted Owens are responsible for the evolution of the academic counseling program into a department. That raises the question of whether the department's purpose is to help students along the road to a degree or to keep them eligible for four years of competition. about things that were bothering me," says Oakson. number of graduation records in the three sports to 273. "It's not a coach-player relationship," says Bruegging. "When you sit down with them, they tell you what to do." "If an athlete is on schedule to get his degree, he will be illicensed." he says. Kivisto disagrees. "Their prime objective, let's be honest, is to keep athletes eligible," he says. "I'm not saying that's why we're going to play, but living depends on winning and not losing." skahan. "They're made aware in junior and senior high of the importance of a college The athletic department also helps as many fifth-year students as it can finance. "You wouldn't believe the number of kids Coach Owens and Coach Fambrough have put on aid (as graduate assistants) so they can graduate," he says. Bruggueg and Oakson, for example, both helped coach the freshman football team last fall in return for full scholarships this year. "IF YOU'RE SHOWING some progress you'll help you through that fifty year, says Mr. Wagner." "Coach Fambrough stresses the point that he wants to help players graduate if they're not just wandering from area to area," Bruegging says. "If you show you're putting the effort in, they'll put the effort in also." Oakson agrees that it's the athlete's work or lack of it that usually determines how much the athletic department will help him. "If you've caused trouble or if you haven't FILMS SUA FILMS SUA FILMS SUA FILMS SUA FILMS SUA Popular Films Michael Cain Special Films Mort Weisinger, Editor of Superman Comics Special Films SUPERMAN PRESENTATION Sir Laurence Olivier Friday, March 1 7:00-9:30 Saturday, March 2 2:00-4:30.7:00-9:30 Monday, March 4 75c Free Kansas Union Wednesday, March 6 Kansas Union Classical Films IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT d. Frank Copa 7:30-9:30 75c Kansas Union Film Society TOKYO STORY d. Ozu Thursday, Feb. 28 75c Kansas Union Children's Films BRATS(Laurel & Hardy) SKINNY AND FATTY PADDLE TO THE SEA Sunday, March 3 1:20 done anything on the field then they're not going to help you," he says. "There are a lot of guys with bad attitudes that they're not going to help out. But then an employer can't be expected to give a good recommendation when you've done a crummy job." The fact that the academic counseling department helps fifty-year students shows how far the department has come since Sayers and Skaben were in school. And if a doctoral dissertation written at Indiana University in 1971 is any indication, chances