Students frustrated by conflicting class and practice times.

The Academic Senate voted not to approve a proposal by the Student Athletics Advisory Committee (SAAC) to allow student athletes to register for classes one day earlier than they are otherwise able. By tabling the motion, the Senate has delayed action on it until next year.

The proposal called for the Senate to “make a change in school policy so that student-athletes are extended the same courtesy of early registration as Honors Students and NTID Cross-registered students for the period which the athlete will be in season to ensure that they meet their academic requirements and needs.”

According to Anna Kolnik, fourth year Business major and Student Government representative for SAAC, the men’s Lacrosse team missed 15 players three times a week due to classes. Additionally, half of the men’s Tennis team missed practice at least twice a week. “The purpose [of the proposal] is to keep athletes in the classroom,” she said.

Some members of the Senate expressed concerns over the plan. Stephen Diehl of the College of Imaging Arts and Sciences said, “I think it diminishes the status of Honors students. I don’t feel comfortable extending this to athletes.”

Others questioned whether this would solve the problem. Provost Stan McKenzie said that the proposal would only help with practices and not games. (Instructors are currently required to let student-athletes miss class for games.) “It would help slightly with electives...but once you get into your third or fourth year, you have required classes that only offer one section,” he said.

McKenzie suggested possibly finding out which classes are likely to have a high concentration of athletes, and scheduling those classes so that they do not conflict. Another proposal was to use the STARS system to manually reserve seats for athletes. The Senate decided to appoint a working group to help SAAC retool their plan. The full Senate will consider the proposal again in the fall quarter of next year.