It’s Friday afternoon, and your 2 p.m. class is nearly empty. There must be another away game. Professors are annoyed, and half the class is missing. Students are overwhelmed with another missed lecture, and coaches don’t understand. Questions arise: How much makeup work will they need to do? Will professors excuse them again? How many more classes will be missed before it becomes an issue? At small colleges, this problem grows larger than at big universities.
Academics are supposed to come first, but with packed athletic schedules, student-athletes miss more classes than nonathletes.
Attendance is important; students can be penalized for missing too many classes. Slowly, we forget this.
Unlike large universities, small ones lack strong online resources for makeup work. When lectures are missed, student-athletes are told to “look at the slides,” but they miss the main points. This forces them to teach themselves, often leading to confusion and lower performance.
Engagement also suffers. Missing class once a week strains relationships with professors.
Athletes may avoid asking questions, causing grades to drop. Professors are frustrated, too. If a professor has five fall athletes in a class, nearly half the students are gone because of small ratios. Athletes aren’t to blame for their schedules, but then who is?
Coaches want what’s best athletically, not always academically.
Missing class might not seem like a big deal to them, while professors focus on academics and student well-being. Still, it’s the athletes who are punished. Missing class means missing labs, discussions, and opportunities to ask questions. At small liberal arts colleges, this is especially important. Athletic directors should adjust schedules, prioritize class time, plan more weekend games, and collaborate with professors. Coaches should communicate which classes will be missed and why. Professors can adjust syllabi or offer Zoom options. At smaller schools, this flexibility is possible. That’s the beauty of small-college life: taking both athletic and academic pursuits seriously, but in balance. Seeing your biology professor in the stands is something unique to small schools. But when half the classes are missed each week, we lose our values. We owe it to ourselves and our community to find a better balance between the classroom and the court.