It’s Friday night, and when most of the universities in the nation are gearing up for their weekend sporting events, UCSD is adding its own flavor to games: the Enerdyne Challenge. Solve a complicated physics problem, come to the basketball game and win a TV — the challenge’s hook.
Basketball player and Revelle College junior Clint Allard joins in on Spirit Week, part of the athletics department’s effort to find its place in a research-oriented institution.
What an odd couple: physics and basketball?
But so goes sporting life at UCSD, where the athletics department is adapting to an academic and research-oriented atmosphere.
It’s not just the challenge — funded by a $10,000 donation from a basketball alumnus — that is bringing together the world of academia and sports. Melding athletics and academics is a UCSD mantra that administrators wish to continue, according to Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Edward J. Spriggs.
“[Our student athletes] are not ‘jocks’ just here to play sports and do nothing else,” Spriggs said. “Every single one of our scholar-athletes is here for both reasons and that is a tradition we don’t want to abandon.”
Paying to get athletes to study is a different matter. UCSD remains the only NCAA Division II school that doesn’t award athletic scholarships. While the athletics department and student affairs office recognize that the lack of scholarships deters prospective athletes from coming to UCSD, limited funds and other school priorities hold the university back from granting serious scholarships, according to Director of Athletics Earl W. Edwards.
“You don’t necessarily have to go down the slippery slope that a lot of people are concerned about in terms of big-time athletic programs and changing academic standards,” Edwards said. “That will never happen here.”
While UCSD is under a waiver this year from the NCAA rules mandating athletic aid, faculty on the Academic Senate are considering the grant-in-aid proposal suggested by student affairs that would issue $500 scholarships to each entering athlete.
While the lack of scholarships may hinder recruitment, it has not limited the success of UCSD athletes. Since the university entered Division II in 2000, UCSD has been ranked as one of the top-10 athletic programs four out of five years.
According to Edwards, the university was founded with the idea that sports would be de-emphasized through broad-based participation in a variety of different athletic programs. The idea gave birth to 23 intercollegiate sports, rather than the Division II average of 13. The number has spread both facilities and the budget thin, Senior Associate Director of Athletics Ken Grosse said.
The department has a $2.6 million budget for 23 sports, whereas other Division II schools average $2.3 million for 13 sports, according to Edwards.
Also, the average salary for staff and coaches is significantly lower than other comparable athletic programs, Edwards said.
The lack of funding could simply be a lack of prioritization by faculty, Grosse said.
“When you compare our funding to that of other institutions at the D-II level, it falls short,” Grosse said. “It’s hard to counter arguments that athletics is not a priority on this campus.”
Student-athletes such as Revelle College junior Jake Dong agree that there is little support from the faculty in charge. If the administration would allow more freedom and let go of requiring academic prowess from athletes, it would enable students to become more involved, he said.
“From a student perspective, it’s clear that athletics has changed as a priority,” Edwards said. “Seventy percent of students have voted to tax themselves to pay a fee for athletics. There seems to be an opposite view between students and faculty.”
Another challenge for UCSD athletics lies simply in the decentralization of the campus, according to Grosse. Large-scale, all-campus events like athletic games could make the six separate colleges feel like one, he said.
“We would like to see it where our events are [the colleges’] events,” Grosse said. “Instead of there being an athletic event and six college events going on Friday night, there would be an athletic event that six colleges can go to.”
Edwards said that the lack of spirit is mostly the result of the campus environment.
However, the overall focus of the campus is strongly academic, and the university is trying to stay consistent with its founding principles, Spriggs said.
In fact, the current model seems to be working exactly as planned, as the average GPA of student-athletes is higher than that of the entire student body.
Some sports, such as men’s water polo, regularly draw solid crowds, with more than 1,000 fans at three games last fall.
Overall, the department has reported improved game attendance this year.
“Since we’ve moved to Division II, there has been a more positive attitude about athletics,” Edwards said. “We clearly do feel that there has been a significant change in the spirit of the students within the last year.”
Whether that trend will continue could depend on whether or not the university decides to split from its academic preoccupation. While some would call the move straying, athletics supporters say it’s merely broadening UCSD’s horizons.
“Today’s college graduates need both knowledge and social competence to survive in our world of constant communication,” Revelle College alumnus and former A.S. Commissioner of Athletics Bryce Warwick said. “Athletes can and should be a key part of a vibrant student life, but that requires a perspective wider than the one offered down the tube of a microscope.”