NARP experience at SLACs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Amherst College - we may be getting revealing data regarding admission of athletes:

https://amherststudent.com/article/faculty-votes-to-release-discuss-data-on-athletic-recruitment-policies/

The faculty voted 105-47 at their regular meeting on Monday to release data on athletic recruitment and hold a discussion on the potential inequities of the policy. This will be the first public evaluation of the athletic recruitment policy since 2016.

The motion was introduced by Professor of Economics Jessica Reyes several minutes into President Michael Elliott’s opening remarks, after he reflected on the Supreme Court’s overturning of affirmative action this June.

Reyes framed the motion as a necessary response to the ruling, citing data from Amherst and other peer institutions to suggest that athletic recruitment favored wealthy white applicants, who are more likely to have the time and resources to excel in sports.

“The demise of affirmative action poses an existential threat to a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive liberal arts institution,” Reyes said. “To lament this terrible event, and simultaneously to continue athletic admissions that preference rich white people, is racist.”

So true and good for her!

[Anonymous]

NP. My kid didn’t feel there was a significant divide at Carleton. He was not an athlete but had a fantastic experience and loves his alma mater. If anything he felt there was less of a divide in college than at his private high school. About 1/3 of his closest friends were athletes. Carleton is odd in that athletes don’t seem to be treated differently and games don’t dominate the social calendar, but there’s maybe more participation than you would guess. Beyond the usual NCAA sports there’s quite a bit more going on, starting with ultimate, the biggest sport on campus (multiple teams of different levels, with the top competing again d1 schools and the bottom just being casual intramural). Every student gets a frisbee during first year orientation (after personalizing, then thrown at random into a heap in the middle of the central quad; everyone picks one and finds the owner over the first term.) Beyond sports there’s a lot of physical recreation, like hiking (and sometimes skiing) every weekend through the stunning 800 acre arboretum, one of the most impressive things I’ve seen at any college. There’s also a PE requirement, club sports, outdoor ice skating, and frequent dance lessons to get ready for the winter ball. Here’s an interesting review by a college counselor I found back when we were searching that touches on the sports scene there.

http://garthrobertson.com/a-visit-to-carleton/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Watch out for the schools where the athletes have their own dining facilities, gym and/or mostly take up their own dorms. At small schools, if the athletes are so sequestered together, it makes the school seem so much smaller to non-athletes.

We toured two SLACS where they specifically highlighted how they are trying to fight this problem.

Can you share the names?
We are late in the game researching SLACs and trying to navigate this for my senior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I learned a new acronym today.

Every kid uses this term

But not seriously. They use it as a joke, or ironically. I know very few kids who would use the term seriously, like OP did.

When my kid was Davidson, they used the term “Muggle” to describe non-athletes. Everyone thought that was pretty funny .

[Anonymous]

The Amherst thing suggests the athlete vs NARP divide is not just the old jock vs nerd thing but more insidiously, white vs POC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I learned a new acronym today.

Every kid uses this term

But not seriously. They use it as a joke, or ironically. I know very few kids who would use the term seriously, like OP did.

When my kid was Davidson, they used the term “Muggle” to describe non-athletes. Everyone thought that was pretty funny .

Really, everyone thought that was funny? That non-athletes get the disparaging, "you're not as special as us" terminology?

[Anonymous]

My child was an athlete at Bates and had friends in all groups. Wasn’t cliquey by teams at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:kinda hate this term, and that it's used derogatorily to describe non-athletes. Schools which foster such strong athlete/non-athlete divides should reconsider what they're doing

Whether or not you like the term NARP, the divide is very rael at many--probably most--LACs/SLACs. Certainly the case at Middlebury & Amherst & Williams--although some experiences may be different.

I kinda doubt that. I’d expect that many schools have kids like my son who played sports as a high level, was recruited low level D1 and chose to not play in college and attends a D3 school. The notion that a D3 (!!!!) athlete would in some way lord it over him or his friends (a couple of whom are similar level athletes from other states/schools that he played against in high school) is actually kind of funny.

I do remember my kid showing me a screenshot of a text a friend had sent him that he was laughing at. Basically DS’s friend (similar level athlete in a different sport) got a text from a kid at a D3 school trying to recruit him, and part of the sell was that athletes were a big deal at the school. My kid and his friends were laughing at the idea of basing your self worth on your status as a D3 athlete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

“The demise of affirmative action poses an existential threat to a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive liberal arts institution,” Reyes said. “To lament this terrible event, and simultaneously to continue athletic admissions that preference rich white people, is racist.”

lmao talk about hysterical nonsense.

The motion was introduced by Professor of Economics Jessica Reyes

"Currently, my teaching and research energies are almost entirely focused on antiracist work. I believe it is necessary to engage with our role as economists in maintaining the fiction that American capitalism is a system of meritocracy and freedom, rather than a system of oppression and unfreedom – racial patriarchal capitalism... I have incorporated antiracist content and pluralist economic content into the economics thesis process and all of my existing courses, and I have developed three new courses: Economics of Race and Gender, AntiRacist AntiEconomics, and Pluralist Economics."

Yeah so she's a communist zealot just as you'd expect. Imagine paying $80k a year for that nonsense.

Bless your heart. Tough to package that much stupid into a single post, but you did it.

News flash: working against systemic racism (for which the evidence in literally every sphere of American life is overwhelming) doesn’t make you a zealot or a communist. Perhaps you should attend college so you can learn what those words mean.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:kinda hate this term, and that it's used derogatorily to describe non-athletes. Schools which foster such strong athlete/non-athlete divides should reconsider what they're doing

Whether or not you like the term NARP, the divide is very rael at many--probably most--LACs/SLACs. Certainly the case at Middlebury & Amherst & Williams--although some experiences may be different.

I kinda doubt that. I’d expect that many schools have kids like my son who played sports as a high level, was recruited low level D1 and chose to not play in college and attends a D3 school. The notion that a D3 (!!!!) athlete would in some way lord it over him or his friends (a couple of whom are similar level athletes from other states/schools that he played against in high school) is actually kind of funny.

I do remember my kid showing me a screenshot of a text a friend had sent him that he was laughing at. Basically DS’s friend (similar level athlete in a different sport) got a text from a kid at a D3 school trying to recruit him, and part of the sell was that athletes were a big deal at the school. My kid and his friends were laughing at the idea of basing your self worth on your status as a D3 athlete.

It’s not that they are bullied, it’s just that they sort of lead separate lives. The fact that some of the jocks were selling him on the idea that they were BMOC speaks to the existence of this divide.

While your son might have been a top athlete, most of the other NARPs were probably nerds/band/theater/LGBTQ types

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

“The demise of affirmative action poses an existential threat to a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive liberal arts institution,” Reyes said. “To lament this terrible event, and simultaneously to continue athletic admissions that preference rich white people, is racist.”

lmao talk about hysterical nonsense.

The motion was introduced by Professor of Economics Jessica Reyes

"Currently, my teaching and research energies are almost entirely focused on antiracist work. I believe it is necessary to engage with our role as economists in maintaining the fiction that American capitalism is a system of meritocracy and freedom, rather than a system of oppression and unfreedom – racial patriarchal capitalism... I have incorporated antiracist content and pluralist economic content into the economics thesis process and all of my existing courses, and I have developed three new courses: Economics of Race and Gender, AntiRacist AntiEconomics, and Pluralist Economics."

Yeah so she's a communist zealot just as you'd expect. Imagine paying $80k a year for that nonsense.

Bless your heart. Tough to package that much stupid into a single post, but you did it.

News flash: working against systemic racism (for which the evidence in literally every sphere of American life is overwhelming) doesn’t make you a zealot or a communist. Perhaps you should attend college so you can learn what those words mean.

Just don’t go to Boston U. Nothing but layoffs at his antiracist research center. Lmao.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12526953/Ibram-X-Kendis-Antiracist-Research-Center-Boston-University-fires-HALF-45-staff-ex-workers-claim-power-brand-EXPLOITATIVE.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Amherst thing suggests the athlete vs NARP divide is not just the old jock vs nerd thing but more insidiously, white vs POC.

Which ones are which? Different sports have different racial popularity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Amherst thing suggests the athlete vs NARP divide is not just the old jock vs nerd thing but more insidiously, white vs POC.

Which ones are which? Different sports have different racial popularity.

But the data from Amherst suggests the athletic teams in general are much less diverse (racially and economically) than the rest of the population.

[Anonymous]

If you look at rosters from basically all nescac schools, nearly all students went to private school. College admission isn’t equal or equitable. I don’t know what to even say. What will opening this secret and releasing the Amherst data do? Suddenly recruit lower class or impoverished students to suddenly play soccer really well and go to Amherst? It isn’t equitable.

[Anonymous]

So does a SLAC or any college/university really need to field a full range of sports at the highest levels (in D1, D2, D3, etc.)? I'm a big believer in a sound mind in a sound body. But wouldn't that be better achieved by offering more kids an opportunity to play a variety of sports in college, even at an entry level, than spending your time and capital on recruiting the best squash players whose parents have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their training leading up to college?