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Athletes must successfully balance the dual role of athlete and student despite time-constraints and competing external pressures from both athletic and academic entities. The purpose of this study was to examine how athletes believed professors perceived and treated them at a small, private, comprehensive NCAA Division II university. For this investigation, 252 letes a sun'ey, which provided both quantitative and qualitative data. Chi-square tests were used to analyze the quantitative data sets and inductive analysis was used to develop themes from the qualitative responses. The participants in this study reported positive academic habits like attending class regularly, turning assignments in on time and respectable grade point averages. Even with the evidence of the positive academic habits and success, some data such as negative remarks made by professors in class and issues surrounding missed class due to team travel revealed the presence of an athletic stigma on this campus. Although this stigma existed, the participants' reported an overall perception and treatment from professors as positive with only 12% of the participants indicating a negative perception.
Intercollegiate athletes are asked to navigate the dual role of student and athlete successfully despite time-constraints and competing external pressures from both athletic and academic entities. Intertwining practices and athletic contests with classes and academic demands, student-athletes must balance these often-divergent roles. Reports exposing athletes who cannot meet minimum academic requirements to remain eligible, various institutions ignoring abysmal athlete graduation rates (Sailes, 1993), and athletes majoring in less demanding coursework (Knight Commission, 1989; Potuto & O'Hanlon, 2007; Suggs, 2003; Zingg, 1982) have garnered front-page attention. These instances can lead to a stereotype on campus portraying the student-athlete as someone who only cares about athletic concerns at the cost of academic mediocrity or even failure (Zingg, 1982). The purpose of this study was to examine a potential stereotype through faculty treatment of athletes at a small, private, comprehensive NCAA Division II university using a similar protocol to the Simons, Bosworth, Fujita, and Jenson (2007) study.
Stereotypes, Prejudice and Discrimination
The need for society to categorize people into groups helps simplify the social environment by reducing and facilitating the comprehension of information (Allport, 1954). This categorization of people can develop into stereotypes, biased emotional reactions and potentially negative associated behaviors (Fiske, 1998;...