Service Ace? Which Academic Services and Resources Truly Benefit Student Athletes

Abstract

As all students are guaranteed equal opportunity in education by the Fourteenth Amendment of the constitution and interpretations from the 1954 Supreme Court Decision, Brown versus the Board of Education, disadvantaged students need support to have the capacity to take advantage of the equal opportunity. In this study, student athletes are considered a disadvantaged population due to the constant conflicts between athletic and academic commitments. Consequently, collegiate institutions have a responsibility to provide educational equal opportunity for their student-athletes. The major objective of the study is to determine the relationship between student-athlete graduation rates and a set of variables (services, administrative support, staff, budget, and space) which exist at NCAA Division-I programs, which are members of the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletes (N4A). After a multiple regression test was run on the variables, with the student-athlete graduation rate as the dependent variable, the researcher found an inverse relationship between services offered by institutions in the study and the student-athlete graduation rate. This finding leads the researcher to examine the student-athletes' academic preparation. Those student athletes with higher high school grade point averages posted higher college graduation rates. The data showed that summer school before the beginning of the freshmen year of college is statistically significant and has a positive impact on student-athlete graduation rates.