Colleges are now using a controversial app to surveil attendance of students of less academically inclined college athletes

So in other words: now they sit in class, messaging on their iphones, instead of downloading p*rn back in the dorm?

First, it was adopting smart phones with GPS. Then, social media platforms so that young people express their innermost thoughts and desires on a GPS enabled device. Now, students are made to use software that tracks their movements but, makes it fun by making it like a video game/motivational tool.

Sounds like the sheep are being groomed to not think twice about a surveillance state. Funny, we complain and fear monger about China's ever watchful police state and Russia's mafia/oligarch run government while transitioning more towards those very systems ourselves. We just soft sell it and make it cool to give up our freedom.

Having model student athletes and winning football games are incompatible goals.

I'm not a fan of policies that alienate good students/employees in order to keep the small minority of bad ones in line. I've worked for employers like this, who start from the assumption that everyone will slack off if they aren't closely monitored and kept in check. This strategy has a way of making everyone just try to do the bare minimum. The actual bad employees work a little harder because they're being watched, but the good employees stop enjoying their work and lose motivation because they're being treated like children and they end up underperforming.

I tutored student athletes during undergrad (Power 5 school with a top 20 football team and a lot of success in minor sports). The vast majority were at least average students, and quite a few were excellent students. Very few of the students I worked with would have needed or benefited from anything like this.

I could understand using this app for specific students who were identified as needing a bit of extra monitoring, but applying it broadly wouldn't be a great idea.

No real need to download the stuff, it looks better on the big screen in my dorm room that i got from the booster.

Agree. This is stupid. The main marker of bad work environments is stress.

Having jobs or responsibility is good. I would support some strategy where students have those as early and often as possible. This is just some political carp that will cause way more problems than it will solve.

The answer is some kind of responsibility, not micromanagement. Sleep, diet, stress reduction, exercise, and education are requirements for everyone. Friends, a job and staying out of trouble with drugs and things like that are required for almost anyone to do okay. Some kind of legal responsibility, maybe for police or military service, and regular education and testing for important ideas like finance and health are also essential.

Most of this arrives organically with enough support. I would only mandate the basics like some military service and semi-regular education and testing. You really can have some long-term problems if you do not have basic health, financial and legal understandings.

Why are they at learning institutions in the first place? wrote:

Many schools already pay “class checkers” to make sure athletes remain eligible to play.

As someone who competed collegiate and follows college football and basketball, this is the first I've heard of this. Honestly, you wouldn't expect ESPN or another sports network to mention this. Exposing the sham of student athletics wouldn't be good for bowl game ratings. Maybe one of the traditional media outlets could run a story about this? No, all of the traditional outlets own a sports network as well now.

Progress, I guess wrote:

So in other words: now they sit in class, messaging on their iphones, instead of downloading p*rn back in the dorm?

Better yet, they have a burner phone just to pass to a pal to take into the classroom while they go somewhere else with their own phone. All this stuff is easily gamed. It's disgusting how college presidents won't enforce their institution's academic mission against erosion by athletics.

Yep.

They own you.

A non athlete student can choose to attend classes or not.

He or she just needs to pass the tests and hand in the required work.

I've taught at an SEC state school and a Div 3 private school and in both places I had extra forms to fill out to document that athletes went to class. If an athlete has an unexcused absence, they are marched into my office by some assistant to apologize and have me sign another form. I also have to sign periodic status forms during the semester.

Obviously athletes still manage to flunk out, but there's a lot of structure in place to make sure they go to class and keep up with their studies. More support than for regular students.

Have not heard of this app. Meh. There are other ways to accomplish it. But I don't teach those big lecture classes with hundreds of students so maybe it's a good method for those.

Teams steering athletes into easy majors and easy classes does happen. Easier to keep them eligible.

Post Hole Digger wrote:

I've taught at an SEC state school and a Div 3 private school and in both places I had extra forms to fill out to document that athletes went to class. If an athlete has an unexcused absence, they are marched into my office by some assistant to apologize and have me sign another form. I also have to sign periodic status forms during the semester.

Obviously athletes still manage to flunk out, but there's a lot of structure in place to make sure they go to class and keep up with their studies. More support than for regular students.

Thank Dog that most athletes are as smart as a stack of bricks, makes the life of WADA easier. If they can't pass regular classes, you can bet they are not smart enough to pass PED tests.

We take attendance. Doesn't take long and it helps me learn their names quickly.

wow really that just seems ridiculous. I was mostly good about attendance but had a few easy lecture hall classes id skip occasionally. I can't imagine the athletic department following me around like i was a 5 year old

As a current D1 athlete, all that I can say about this is that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't force it to drink. Okay, so athletes are now being actually forced to attend their classes by means of monitoring, checking in, and a weird reward system. Great. So basically, you have a room full of kids who don't want to be there, and as a result are not going to give the class their focus or attention. What does it matter if they don't do well in the class, so long as they are getting 'points' for being there? They show up, they sit down, and they spend the next hour or so doing whatever the hell they want on the internet. I see this even on my own team. If the athletes don't want to learn, you aren't going to be able to force them to. They need to have a reason to show up to class and do well beyond the fact that they will be punished if they don't.

carbsandrunning wrote:They show up, they sit down, and they spend the next hour or so doing whatever the hell they want on the internet.

This is not exclusive to athletes.

Yes, you can come to class and learn nothing, but class attendance correlates to good grades more than any other factor.

The French version of Foucault's book (on the Birth of the Prison in France) was called Surveiller et Punir for a reason. Admittedly, I don't think he conceived of the gamefication angle.

carbsandrunning wrote:

They need to have a reason to show up to class and do well beyond the fact that they will be punished if they don't.

You can't be D1 forever and even less likely to turn Pro. Eventually you will need to start working at McDonald's or Walmart. Knowing how to do math and basic real world skills by attending class and respecting the professors would do you good. It could be the difference between you being the front line McDonald's staff that asks if you want to "Supersize" it or being the managers in the back and gets to waste time all shift on LRC. Which one do you want to be?

Dumbfounded wrote:

Why are they at learning institutions in the first place? wrote:

Many schools already pay “class checkers” to make sure athletes remain eligible to play.

As someone who competed collegiate and follows college football and basketball, this is the first I've heard of this. Honestly, you wouldn't expect ESPN or another sports network to mention this. Exposing the sham of student athletics wouldn't be good for bowl game ratings. Maybe one of the traditional media outlets could run a story about this? No, all of the traditional outlets own a sports network as well now.

Inside Higher Ed had in back in 2013. The explosion of resource allocation to the now-common academic centers exclusively for athletes, increased staffs in academic advisers, learning specialists tutors, and class checkers to maintain the eligibility of these athletic entertainers further separates college athletics from integration with other students and the educational mission of the university.

And in 2015 they said it was commonplace (and talked about an burgeoning app):

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/24/attendance-monitoring-programs-common-college-athletics