TD
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Post by TD on Oct 25, 2008 7:24:57 GMT -5
www.horizonleaguenetwork.tv/channel.aspx?School=&VideoID=2000&SchoolID=0 At the beginning of this Valpo Volleyball HLN item Coach Avery of the volleyball team states that the Volleyball team attended their first Friday class of the year when this video was done. One of the things that was mentioned by then President Harre when Valpo joined the Horizon League was that Valpo students would not miss as many classes due to the travel times between Horizon League cities. Has this actually happened? Are Valpo student athletes getting more time in the classroom since the switch to the Horizon League or are they spending more time in buses then in airports & planes?
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Post by valporun on Oct 25, 2008 10:16:34 GMT -5
I shouldn't comment about it here, but looking at the schedule, the ladies were on the road for early season tournaments that started on Friday morning. These tournaments were important to see how the women would do together. Coach Avery couldn't really help the fact that the team had to miss Friday classes because of games. Thankfully, for her, the academic standards and responsibility her players hold for themselves is very high and good representation of a great team. Now that we're into the conference season, there aren't as many classes missed because the team could leave Friday afternoon for the Chicago matches or even Butler.
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TD
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Post by TD on Oct 26, 2008 8:09:51 GMT -5
The question is not specifically about the schedule of the Volleyball team and whether they should have been in class on Friday more often at the beginning of the school year. My question was sparked by the comment by Coach Avery. The real question is "Are Valparaiso University student athletes spending more time in the classroom since the switch to the Horizon League then they were when Valpo was a member of the Mid-Con/Summit League." This was a key component of the decision to move to the HL as stated by then President Harre in 2006. I simply think this is a very measurable statistic and want to know if the desired result has happened.
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Post by ValpoHoops on Oct 26, 2008 9:44:35 GMT -5
The VB team did miss a bunch of Fridays early in the year, but overall, the teams will be missing less classes.
Example: The longest trip in the Mid-Con was Southern Utah/UMKC. For this trip, the teams would have to leave on Wednesday afternoon (or earlier) for a Friday game. In the Horizon League, the longest trip is to Youngstown State and the team can leave the evening before the match, arrive late at night, and still be fine for the game.
Yes, they missed some Fridays, but overall, less classes will be missed.
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Post by valpospartan on Oct 26, 2008 22:22:00 GMT -5
Missing some Friday classes hasn't been two detrimental to the academic standing of the VB team, as shown in this 7/30/08 news item I found on the VB page of the VU athletic website:
"For the fifth consecutive season, the Valparaiso University volleyball team received the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Team Academic Award for the 2007-08 school year.
The honor is given to college and high school teams that displayed excellence in the classroom by maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale. The nominating head coaches must be AVCA members. Valpo was one of a record 70 Division I programs to be so honored this season.
The Crusaders continued to excel on the court as well as in the classroom last year, winning 21 matches, finishing tied for third place in the Horizon League and advancing to the championship match of the Horizon League Tournament. Over the five years that Valpo has captured the AVCA Team Academic Award, the team has a cumulative record of 127-45 (.738) and has made three trips to the NCAA Tournament.
Valpo was joined by fellow Horizon League institutions Cleveland State, Green Bay, and Milwaukee as award recipients."
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TD
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Post by TD on Oct 27, 2008 6:11:48 GMT -5
I would still like to see the stats and see how much the switch to the HL has directly effected classroom time. How much more classroom time are the VU student athletes getting as compared to the classroom time they were getting when VU was in the Mid-Con/Summit League.
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Post by valporun on Oct 27, 2008 6:50:08 GMT -5
What you should do in this case, TD, submit a FOIA request with the athletics department. I have a feeling this is a study that can't really be conducted in a 1-year observance though. Sure, the HL may save VU time and money in travel, but the study of how this reflects in the classroom can't exactly be studied after one year. A lot of what you're looking at is more based on the individual athlete's dedication to their academics both in and out of the classroom, whether this means while being on campus or while on the bus or in the hotel with the academic counselor that travels with the team, if the team has one. I know this happens for VU closer to finals time, so there is someone to proctor those exams so the coaches can focus on the next opponent(s).
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Post by fwalum on Oct 27, 2008 7:53:59 GMT -5
What you should do in this case, TD, submit a FOIA request with the athletics department. Seriously, a Freedom of Information Act request? This is a joke right... just go ask ml and I am sure that he would give you the information if he has it available. |
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TD
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Post by TD on Nov 1, 2008 7:03:13 GMT -5
What you should do in this case, TD, submit a FOIA request with the athletics department. I have a feeling this is a study that can't really be conducted in a 1-year observance though. Sure, the HL may save VU time and money in travel, but the study of how this reflects in the classroom can't exactly be studied after one year. A lot of what you're looking at is more based on the individual athlete's dedication to their academics both in and out of the classroom, whether this means while being on campus or while on the bus or in the hotel with the academic counselor that travels with the team, if the team has one. I know this happens for VU closer to finals time, so there is someone to proctor those exams so the coaches can focus on the next opponent(s). I think the FOIA request will be unneccessary. I plan to follow a selected member of each athletic team all over campus for a week and see how much time they are spending in class. I will then divide total class time by the number of student athletes I observed. I will also ruin the observed student athletes' social life. :-). Good thing I wasn't doing this when CA was a student athlete. |
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Post by stlvufan on Nov 1, 2008 12:49:50 GMT -5
I think the FOIA request will be unneccessary. I plan to follow a selected member of each athletic team all over campus for a week and see how much time they are spending in class. I will then divide total class time by the number of student athletes I observed. I will also ruin the observed student athletes' social life. :-). TD will first be perfecting the science of human cloning, of course  |
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TD
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Post by TD on Nov 1, 2008 22:03:58 GMT -5
I think the FOIA request will be unneccessary. I plan to follow a selected member of each athletic team all over campus for a week and see how much time they are spending in class. I will then divide total class time by the number of student athletes I observed. I will also ruin the observed student athletes' social life. :-). TD will first be perfecting the science of human cloning, of course I thought cloning was already perfected. You clo(w)ne! The thought of StL being cloned..................well, I think you that know him know what I mean. :-) |
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Post by agibson on Nov 3, 2008 5:58:42 GMT -5
What you should do in this case, TD, submit a FOIA request with the athletics department. Seriously, a Freedom of Information Act request? This is a joke right... just go ask ml and I am sure that he would give you the information if he has it available. Can you even file a FOIA request against a private university? I would have thought not. I wonder if the athletics department even tracks this sort of information? I suppose whoever tracks athletes' academic performance might try to keep track of "mandatory" absences, what fraction of classes those represented, etc. I don't think I had any basketball players. But, at least for football, it's not as if the team systematically checks whether their students are attending lectures. The students were supposed to clear absences in advance with instructors, and they usually did a good job of this. But, I never saw anyone checking up on them. |
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Post by rlh on Nov 3, 2008 8:32:12 GMT -5
I know basketball checks class attendance....I would assume most every other sport does the same
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Post by fwalum on Nov 3, 2008 14:00:44 GMT -5
Most schools have some sort of electronic grading and attendance system that the coaches can check to see if grades and attendance are within the program's rules. What really steams me is when a prof tries to supersede our policies buy saying something like "I allow a student to have X many of absences from my class". And then the kid gets upset when we tell him "I don't care what policy the teacher has, you have violated our team rules and there are consequences for do so".
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Post by stlvufan on Nov 3, 2008 19:07:42 GMT -5
TD will first be perfecting the science of human cloning, of course I thought cloning was already perfected. You clo(w)ne! The thought of StL being cloned..................well, I think you that know him know what I mean. :-) I know me, and I know what you mean |
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