Word: bowens
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
James L. Shulman and former Princeton president William G. Bowen attempt to answer provocative questions like these in The Game of Life, a new book in which they warn of a growing divide between academics and athletics in college...
Shulman and Bowen decry the changing nature of collegiate athletics which they believe has become too professional and commercialized. In a study of 30 academically selective schools, including four Ivies (but not Harvard), Shulman and Bowen found that average SAT scores among athletes are markedly lower than those of their classmates. They also note that athletes enjoy an advantage in gaining admission to selective universities compared with other targeted groups such as minorities or alumni children. Once on campus, they believe that an "athlete culture" is established. They charge, quite boldly, that many athletes fail "to take full advantage...
...defining characteristic of the "athlete culture" is the de-emphasis of academics, the authors argue. Aside from this assumption's questionable accuracy, the authors suggest no solution to the "problem" of the athlete culture. What type of culture would Shulman and Bowen envision replacing the athlete culture? The "perfect board score" culture? While certainly there are many interesting people with astronomical SAT scores, would Harvard necessarily be a better place if the proportion of such people were increased? If every last student were intent on achieving Group I status, most would end up unhappy and dissatisfied. In the words...
...creation of this "athlete culture," argue the authors, begins in admissions offices, which they believe encourage greater specialization in athletics at a younger age. Shulman and Bowen find that recruited athletes face markedly better odds at gaining admittance to top universities. But what they forget is that recruited athletes are a pre-screened group. Since coaches do not recruit athletes who do not fall in the acceptable academic, it is unsurprising that their acceptance rate should be higher...
...quirky mooseprints of Northern Exposure all over it. Hence the yuppie Green Acres premise: man (Tom Cavanagh) is cuckolded by wife, loses Manhattan law-firm job, buys bowling alley in Stuckeyville, Ohio, opens a legal practice amid the tenpins and romances his high school love (Julie Bowen). Hence too the oddball characters: the preening slacker selling Kobe beef behind the bowling-shoe counter, the doddering magician suing a rival for revealing his secrets...