A FRONT ROW VIEW: Athletes are also preprofessional

Why are you at college? Most of us (in theory at least) are attending the University of Pennsylvania to gain valuable knowledge and experiences that will be helpful to us throughout our adult professional lives. Those of us who know exactly what direction our lives will take are able to specialize our undergraduate or preprofessional studies to prepare for our careers as effectively as possible. Why then, do America's universities refuse to provide this opportunity to their elite athletes? Although our universities were originally founded solely on the principles of higher education, they have clearly assumed other roles and responsibilities. In fact, outside our beloved Ancient Eight, major colleges and universities have become the minor leagues for both the National Football League and the National Basketball Association. Almost every pro athlete in these two sports comes through a Division I program. Furthermore, athletes with pro potential are almost always athletes first, students second. And they should be. They are pre-professionals just like the rest of us. Why is having an exceptional talent on the football field or on the basketball court any different than being gifted in a microbiology lab? I would argue that it is not. I would also argue that college athletes should be able to major in football, for example. You can call it preprofessional athletics if that's easier to swallow. But whatever you call it, the reality is that we are being unfair to our finest collegiate athletes by not letting them prepare for their future to the best of their abilities. We are being unfair because, as a society, we have failed to differentiate the many roles that our universities have come to play in modern society. We cannot absolve our ethical bias that young men attend university for education – education as it has been for hundreds of years. The American psyche has failed to evolve with its universities and the growth of college and professional sports as big business. We fail to recognize that if our major college athletic programs did not become the minor leagues of the NBA and the NFL, most of these athletes would not be at college. And quite honestly, many of America's colleges would not want these young men were they not such enormous sources of revenue and prestige. Although certain programs have assumed their de facto roles as professional breeding grounds, there continues to be enormous friction and conflicting interests between administrators and coaches. Although some programs seem to do an excellent job in preparing their athletes for the future (Dean Smith's Tar Heels for example), it seems only logical that all of our athletes would benefit considerably if colleges created programs to prepare their athletes for the rigors and intricacies of professional sports. For dealing with agents and signing contracts. For marketing themselves and dealing with media pressure. For insuring themselves and their families both economically and emotionally against injury or failure. For informing them of the slim chances of success as a pro athlete and ensuring that they have the necessary talents and abilities to justify this choice. For life after pro sports and a possible future in management, broadcasting or corporate relations. Yes, we have an obligation to ensure that all of our athletes, and all of our citizens for that matter, can read, write and perform simple math. However, wouldn't it be more useful to teach Charlie Ward how to interpret a contract than to make him take a chemistry class? The current system imposes a double standard on our athletes. The result is that the system gets abused, and the abuses get covered up. The system needs to be changed. I am not proposing that every student-athlete be placed in such a program, only that such programs be made available. And, like in any other pre-professional field, some of them will fail. There are some student athletes, like most in the Ivy League, without any future as a professional athlete. For these students, standard academics must come first. Our universities have a duty to maximize everyone's chances for success. This, they are not doing. A university's role should be to educate its students in a way that best prepares them for the rest of their lives, regardless of whether these students will be practicing law, solving differential equations – or shooting a basketball. The greatest value that an athlete has to society is his or her physical talent. For many, this will be a meal ticket. By not simply treating our student athletes as another group of pre-professionals, we are doing them a great disservice. We are cheating them, and we are cheating ourselves. Jed Walentas is a College sophomore from New York, N.Y., and a sportswriter for the Daily Pennsylvanian.