College Athletes: Students First, Athletes Second?

A rundown of the debate over the treatment of players in American schools. First of two parts.

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One of our listeners has a question about college athletes in the United States. Amni Garcia in Mexico would like to know how much they study.

Well, we suppose that like any other students, there are those who study a lot, those who study just enough and those who struggle. But this question touches on a hotly debated subject.

College sports, especially football and basketball, are a big industry. Nationally rated teams and television broadcast rights can be worth millions of dollars.

This could be seen as a good deal all around. Colleges invest in their players and, in return, the schools earn money and attention. The athletes often get a free education. And they gain experience that might lead to a chance to play professionally.

But critics question the morality of a situation where college athletes may seem valued more as athletes than as college students. Praise is heard for recent improvements in graduation rates. Yet critics say that some players who finish college never really learn anything except their sport.

Getting back to the question of how much college athletes study, a better answer would be: it all depends. The expectations and pressures on athletes differ from school to school and sport to sport.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association governs college sports in the United States. For the past few years, this organization has been increasing requirements for student athletes. That includes high school students who want to compete on Division One teams -- the top division in college sports.

College athletes are required to make continual progress toward earning their degree. New reforms aim to punish Division One schools that do not graduate enough of their athletes.

Yet finishing college is not always a goal for students who are good enough to play professionally. Is this short-term thinking? A sports career may not last very long, or lead to the wealth and fame that young players may dream of. But there are always exceptions.

Fans of American football may remember the retired New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath. Recently, he graduated from the University of Alabama. He left that school 42 years ago to play for the Jets. Now he is 64, but he went back -- in part, he says, because he had promised his mother to finish his education.

Note: Picture depicts football great Joe Namath, right, graduating Saturday from the University of Alabama -- 42 years after he left to join the New York Jets

Life on the Tenure Track: A Historian's History

Second of two reports about salaries for professors in the U.S.

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Now, we continue our discussion from last week about the pay for professors in the United States. We looked at the averages. Today we narrow that to one example.

Andrew McMichael is a young history professor in his sixth year at Western Kentucky University, a state school in Bowling Green. He started as an assistant professor, teaching seven courses a year.

His starting pay was $43,000, plus benefits. These included health insurance for himself and his family, life insurance and a retirement plan.

His position was on the tenure track. This meant the university would have to decide either to award him tenure, which provides job security, or ask him to leave.
He requested tenure after five years. He had to present evidence of his research, teaching and service on committees.

Teaching skills are measured through evaluations by students and observations by other professors. The research requirement includes publishing three articles or writing a book or translating a foreign work into English.

Professors may think they have met all the requirements for tenure, but there are no guarantees. The process can seem mysterious and unfair.

In recent years many schools have reduced their number of tenured positions. Doing that saves money and gives administrators more control. It also means greater competition for fewer jobs.
Earlier this year, Andrew McMichael received the decision about his future at Western Kentucky. It was good news: he earned tenure.

That meant a promotion to associate professor. It also meant a 10% pay increase as well as a one-time payment for good work.

He now earns almost $58,000 a year -- not a huge amount, he admits. And he knows that even a starting professor outside the liberal arts, in an area like accounting, earns a lot more.

He also knows that his school could hire someone to teach the same number of classes he does for about $15,000, with no benefits. But being a professor means more than teaching classes.

Professor McMichael says tenure will mean the freedom to speak out and do research on whatever he wants. History is not his only interest. In the spring he will be team-teaching a class with a biologist on the history and science of beer and brewing.

Excuse Me, Professor, How Much Do You Earn?

We answer a question about the salaries of American professors.

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Today we answer a question from a listener who wants to become a Spanish professor. Orlando Carvajal asks how much professors earn in the United States.

We looked in the almanac published by the Chronicle of Higher Education. It shows that the average salary for full professors last year was $99,000. For associate professors it was $70,000. And for assistant professors it was $59,000.

Private, independent schools pay more than public colleges and universities. But how do professors compare with other professions? For that we turn to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Assistant professors earned about the same last year as workers in business and financial operations. But they earned about $10,000 less than computer programmers, for example.

The highest paying group of jobs in the United States is in management. The average wage last year was $92,000. Next came lawyers and other legal workers, at $85,000.

Orlando also asks about benefits, things like health insurance and retirement plans. Benefits differ from school to school just as salaries do.

The Chronicle Almanac shows that new assistant professors in foreign language earned $48,000. That was a little more than the national average for all education jobs. But averages do not tell the whole story.

Sally Hadden is an associate professor of history and law at Florida State University in Tallahassee. She notes that language professors generally earn less than those in subjects like engineering, for example.

But these days, professors of some languages, including Arabic, can earn much more than Spanish professors. Universities are competing for them with government and industry.

Professor Hadden also notes that colleges in different areas of the country pay different salaries. Some states have strong unions that have negotiated set increases in salaries for professors.

And different schools value different skills in their professors. Community and liberal arts colleges generally value good teaching skills more than big research universities do.

Salaries can also be tied to something else -- tenure. More about that next week.

Note on above image: Money from the sale of books written by professors can add to their salaries. Florida State University professor Darrin McMahon shows his book 'Happiness: A History.'

Unscientific Poll: Calculators Subtract From Thinking Skills

We asked for your opinions, and found more critics than supporters of using calculators in school.

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Recently we asked how you feel about calculators in school. We heard from about 03 people in 12 countries, including a large number of Chinese.

Turbo Zhang writes: "My brain is rusting. Why? Because I use calculators everywhere, on my mobile phone, on my computer, etc. New technology makes us use everything except our brain."

Joony Zhu says calculators can provide us with an answer, but we may not understand it completely. And a student at an architectural and engineering college in China, Zhao Jing-tao, calls using a calculator "a kind of laziness."

Critics of using calculators in school, at least until high school or university, outnumbered supporters 2-1.

Khaled Hamza in Cairo says "calculators affect badly on the thinking ways of students." Jose Gudino from Mexico City says this is because "you don't need to make an effort to get a result."

Hemin, a math teacher in Kurdistan-Iraq, says good math skills help in life. So he believes in solving problems with a pencil until high school.

Randy Bin Lin, a Ph.D. candidate from China at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, writes: "You should work out problems with some kind of pain without computers. Then you may come to appreciate the power of these sophisticated machines."

Abbas from Iran, now living in Sweden, says it is good to use your brain because calculators are not always available. "Last week I met a university student who could not subtract 6 from 40 and used a calculator," says Abbas.

But He Wenbo from China says calculators reduce careless mistakes. And Yang Linwei, an 11th grader from China, says: "When I was young we couldn't use calculators. But when I entered high school we have to solve a lot of math problems. We have to use a calculator. It makes my homework easier."

From Burkina Faso, Compaore Tewende Michel writes: "I can say that the handheld calculator has been important in my studies and even in my life."

And Barnabas Nyaaba in Ghana advises that "as we enjoy the use of calculators, let's be careful so that it does not have any bad effects on us."

Finally, Thomas, a student in China, says he likes using electronic calculators in school. But he wanted to tell us about what he called a special calculator which he does not know how to use. He even sent us a picture of this special -- and, in fact, ancient -- calculator. In English we call it an abacus.

Pilgrims Face Competition in Thanksgiving Lessons

Who really did hold the first celebration in America? For some teachers, including those of American Indian children, that is beside the point.

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The fourth Thursday in November is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. Tradition says early English settlers known as the Pilgrims held the first celebration in 1621 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. They invited local Indians to a feast to thank them for help in surviving their first year in America.

Yet the Berkeley Plantation along the James River in Virginia calls itself the site of the first official Thanksgiving in America. In 1619 an English ship arrived with directions for the crew to observe their arrival date as a yearly day of thanksgiving to God.

But now comes a book called "America's REAL First Thanksgiving." A Florida schoolteacher, Robyn Gioia, tells the story of Spanish explorer Pedro Menendez who founded Saint Augustine, Florida. He celebrated with a thanksgiving feast with the native Timucua Indians. That was in 1565.

So what are schoolchildren learning these days about Thanksgiving?

Sharon Biros is a first-grade teacher in Clairton, Pennsylvania. Her students learn about the holiday as they discuss being good citizens. They read stories about the Indians and the Pilgrims. And the children tell what they are each thankful for. Many of the families are poor. The school organizes a project in which students bring food and money to share with those in need.

Brook Levin heads a preschool in Broomall, Pennsylvania. She says the kids learn about native culture and the Pilgrims and how people at that time grew their own food. Thanksgiving, she says, is a good time to teach about the importance of sharing. The children make bread and other foods and invite their parents to school to enjoy them.

Cheryl Burrell is curriculum director for the public schools on the reservation of the Winnebago Indian tribe in Nebraska. She is not American Indian, and she says there is only one native teacher. But she says all the teachers are trained in native culture and history.

Students learn about the Pilgrims, she says, but not at Thanksgiving time. They learn about them when they study American history. Thanksgiving is used as a time to strengthen a sense of community.

She says most of the families in the tribe celebrate Thanksgiving just like other Americans do. But in addition the students take part in a traditional Indian harvest festival in October.