Students react to bonuses
By Angelita Caudillo
The Collegian
Incentives for meeting certain
goals are often outlined in coaches’ contracts, such as former Fresno
State women’s basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein’s, and
can encourage coaches to create programs such as the Academic Gameplan,
used by the football team, so student-athletes can succeed.
Programs like the Academic Gameplan can help raise a team’s collective
GPA: the Fresno State football team has raised its GPA from 2.2 to 2.7
over the past eight years.
By meeting certain goals in their contracts, some coaches receive bonuses.
Johnson-Klein had some of these outlined in her contract.
For a team GPA of at least 2.0 Johnson-Klein would receive $5,000, for
a GPA of at least 2.6 she got $10,000 and for a GPA of at least 3.5 she
would get $20,000.
Team graduation rate can also affect how much extra a coach earns. Johnson-Klein
would receive $5,000 for a graduation rate of at least 45 percent, $15,000
for a graduation rate of 61 percent and with an 80 percent graduation
rate she’d get $20,000.
Some students question whether these incentives will hurt or help the
student body and athletes.
Senior child development major
Cambria Avediakian said coaches should want their players to do well academically
without monetary compensation.
“It should be motivation enough to want to have their best athletes
participate,” Avediakian said.
Junior social work major Susana Escobara said she saw the incentives as
a good and bad thing.
“It’s good because it reflects on their (coaches’) job,”
Escobara said. “If it comes out of students fees then it’s
not fair.”
According to academicgameplan.com, the football team now has more than
34 players with semester GPAs over 3.0. Since Hill and Baxter put the
Academic Gameplan into place the team’s graduation rate has doubled
and has produced 65 Academic All-WAC football players. In previous years
before Hill and Baxter arrived, the football program had the worst graduation
rate in the country.
In a recent Academic Progress Rate (APR) report released by NCAA, Fresno
State’s APR was 18 points higher than the national average of 921.
It also ranked best among the 2005 WAC institutions.
Students said athletes should get the support and help they need from
a coach to become successful but without the incentives.
“It’s positive if it’s helping them (athletes) but they
(coaches) should already want to help,” freshman liberal studies
major Camion Dunnicliff said.
A coach giving his time to help athletes obtain organizational skills
and study techniques is essential to not only have an effective athletic
team, but to help them succeed in life, students said. The only objection
by students was the university should offer the Academic Gameplan to everyone.
“It’s kind of unfair they’re getting the extra help,
but if students wanted the help they would find it,” Dunnicliff
said.
Avedikian agreed: “It’s great to have an Academic Gameplan,
but it should be a part of the university.”
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