Posts Tagged williamandmary
W&M Logos and Mascots: Over for now?
This weekend, I wore my team-issued jacket to the Colonial Relays in support of everyone running. Like most of my team issued stuff, the jacket had the feathered logo, since the feathers weren’t banned until my last year of eligibility. At the meet, plenty of my old teammates who were still competing wore the same jacket, but with a different logo over the breast. Apparently, those on the track team caught wearing the old jacket or logo would get in big trouble. I miss the feathers, for they gave our school logo character that it now lacks. For the first four years of my life at William and Mary, the feathered logo worked swimmingly.
Unfortunately, in 2006, the school president at the time decided not to protest the NCAA’s ruling that the feathered logo was offensive. Without any prior complaints, the NCAA decided on its own to review the logo and the use of the word “Tribe”. I recall the local media interviewing the state recognized Native American tribes, finding that none of the tribes found the feathers or “Tribe” offensive. While the NCAA permitted “Tribe” to remain, it threatened sanctions if the feathers were not removed. The school president could have chosen to stand and fight the NCAA, but caved to the demands instead, leading to the featherless interim logo, and finally, in 2007, the design of the “WordArt” logo. A weak design begotten from weak leadership.
Also this week, the college athletics department announced the new mascot, hopefully ending several years of controversy which began with the logo. For a few years, there was Colonel Ebirt, a caricature of colonial attire, but it was retired soon after the logo brouhaha began. ”Tribe” is pretty ambiguous, and neither my teammates nor I cared that we were without a true mascot. ”Tribe” by itself seemed more to symbolize the members of the school better than any mascot could. Screaming it before the start of a race reminded me that I wouldn’t be alone in the suffering to come.
The new mascot, a griffin, was narrowed down from a possible six, but I’m sure just about any of the choices would inflame much of the student body. I bet the pug was included as a strawman so that anyone complaining would say, “at least it’s better than the pug.” I’m not sure how a griffin will fit in with “Tribe.” A tribe of griffins? As with the logo controversy, it’s more about change for the sake of change instead of leaving well enough alone. It reminds me of a great quote from Calvin and Hobbes: “A good compromise leaves everyone mad.”
No longer the Vickers, but still holding up
Posted by Matt in general, microfracture on December 16, 2009
Quite a bit has happened in the past few months since I’ve written anything substantial. With school picking up, it’s hard to write since both activities draw from the same energy source.
Today marks the first time since my knee surgery, nearly a year and a half ago, that I’ve run for seven consecutive days. The last time I ran six days in a row was at the beginning of September, and I felt awful by the end of that streak. From mid-August to the beginning of September, I ran about five or six days in a row and then took the other days on the bike to try to alleviate the completely trashed feeling from running. By the end of September, I had been running about six miles on the days I ran and started to feel more smooth doing it, but I was still pretty beat up.
Part of the beat up feeling was more than likely due to me favoring my non-surgery leg when running. I had been fighting an adductor strain on my right leg that gradually got worse until I was unable to walk without limping. While my left knee felt fine, my right leg hurt just about everywhere. At first, I thought it was just the humidity, but as the summer ended, the problems persisted, and I was forced to stop running at the beginning of October. From then until the beginning of December I spent most of the time on the bike, with a few botched attempts at running once my thigh problems calmed down. However, within the last few weeks I’ve been able to restart running while keeping everything under control. With the introduction of cold weather, it’s a lot easier to run than bike, despite buying warmer clothes to ride in the cold and rain.
At this point, I’m certain that I’ll never feel as good running as I did when I was on my college team. On the team, even on the worst days after a race or hard workout, I still felt light on my feet and able to cruise through a 10-15 mile run without thinking. Today, each step I take is a considerable effort, like I have to drag myself through five or six miles. Comparing how I felt when running on the team with how it feels now reminds me of a passage in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. A character in the book compares the power of a bandsaw to other saws and a Vickers machine gun to other firearms:
[T]he most noteworthy thing about the bandsaw was that you could cut anything with it and not only did it do the job quickly and coolly but it didn’t seem to notice that it was doing anything. It wasn’t even aware that a human being was sliding a great big chunk of stuff through it. It never slowed down. Never heated up.
Guns could fire bullets all right, but they kicked back and heated up, got dirty, and jammed eventually. They could fire bullets in other words, but it was a big deal for them, it placed a certain amount of stress on them, and they could not take that stress forever. But the Vickers in the back of this truck was to other guns as the bandsaw was to other saws. The Vickers was water-cooled. It actually had a fucking radiator on it. It had infrastructure, just like the bandsaw, and a whole crew of technicians to fuss over it. But once the damn thing was up and running, it could fire continuously for days as long as people kept scurrying up to it with more belts of ammunition.
Before my surgery and when I was on the team, it was as if I could just go forever and chew through any workout or race, “firing continuously for days.” I never slowed down and rarely heated up. There were limits, of course, but reaching them required hundred mile weeks, punishing pace runs, and draining interval workouts. Like the Vickers, there was also quite the support infrastructure of coaches, trainers, and teammates. But now only running a few miles is “a big deal” for me. It places quite a bit of stress on me, though it is easier than in the late summer. I’m quite sure I’ll have to spend a lot more time on the bike, but maybe I’ll get to the point where I’ll want to run a race.
With respect to school, I’ll be travelling to Stockholm in April to present a paper at RTAS. I’ve been working on several projects related to event detection with accuracy guarantees, which will probably form the basis for my thesis. I also went to RTSS in Washington, DC two weeks ago, but only a few tracks were on wireless sensor networks, but most were about job scheduling and cache replacement policies with the latest multi-core architectures. I’ll also be starting a project with mobile phones with a few other students in our department, which should be interesting. The traditional concept of wireless sensor networks entails small devices with cheap sensors and the processing power of a scientific calculator. However, mobile phones have considerably more power as well as onboard sensors and have more potential for practical applications that people would actually use.
It’s interesting that I spend much of my time writing, creating presentations, and sketching out designs and high-level solutions. About half of my time is actually spent programming. It’s probably a good thing since it gives me a balance between different tasks. Writing papers and creating presentations can be tedious since it can be difficult to cram in months of work into a short paper or presentation. It’s also difficult to create a good balance of high-level descriptions and details to keep people interested but not get confused. When working with a small group of people on a project for a long time, it’s easy to get stuck in a box and not consider things that outsiders would see as obvious. Working with a few other students on my next project should help with this.
It’s when I run into my old teammates that I realize that despite being in the same town and same school that things are really different. One of my teammates got married a few weeks ago and at the wedding, it really hit home that I’m living in a new era. We’re no longer kids. School has taken on a whole new meaning. My relationship with my longtime girlfriend has also taken on a new meaning. Many of the people and the places are the same, but life is different.
The Brain Drain of Public University Funding
Every few months I get an email from the college president at William and Mary concerning the governor’s new proposal for budget cuts. Every time, state funding for higher education takes a hit. This has gone on and on and on ever since I arrived in Williamsburg seven years ago. Undergraduate tuition is now twice what it was when I started as a freshman and it’s hard to believe since I’m still a student here (albeit two degrees later). There’s been a lot of talk of a “college bubble,” where droves of potential students don’t even bother to apply anywhere since the costs are too high and reasonable financial aid is scarce. Why is tuition outpacing inflation at such a ludicrous rate? What can be done to ensure the quality of the American higher education system while making it affordable to all who are qualified?
The rise in tuition for public higher education is coming from two directions: reduction in state funding and increases in administrative costs. Both government and individuals no longer see the benefit of higher education. At the government level, governors and legislators have put higher education on the back burner while focusing on nebulous agendas such as “job creation.” At the individual level, students no longer see education as a priority when attending college; it’s now about the “experience”, prompting administrative bloat to handle the demand for more university-run social programs.
The most obvious cause of tuition increases comes from the never ending cuts in state funding. With UVA and William and Mary receiving a respective 6 and 13% of total income from state sources, it’s hard to believe they are considered state schools. As state revenue sources have dried up, the state government has decided that higher education is no longer a priority. Emphasis in the fall elections are on the economy and the environment, not learning. Specific issues include vague terms such as “job creation” and “sustainability”, as well as more concrete problems like transportation and K-12 education. Higher education is hardly mentioned. It’s assumed that regardless of the winner this fall, state funding will continue to dwindle for “publicly funded” colleges, ensuring de facto privatization.
William and Mary placed fourth on the Forbes Best Public Colleges ranking for 2009. Contributing to this are its small class sizes, nearly all of which are taught by professors. Because of this, professors who are leaders in their fields are readily available to students of all levels. It is the small school size, relative intimacy between the faculty and students, and enthusiasm exhibited by students and professors alike that make William and Mary what it is. As funding is cut, education quality will suffer. Tenured professors will leave for higher paying jobs. Class sizes will increase and will be taught by less qualified instructors and grad students. Consequently, good students will look elsewhere for a solid education. Until the state government decides to make higher education a priority, the future of public colleges in Virginia is doomed.
Falling in lockstep with the state government, college officials and students alike are de-emphasizing the value of a college education, leading to further cost increases. While reduction in state funding is well known, it’s the administrative cost increases that are the most unnerving. It’s a real kick in the face to hear the budget situation at William and Mary described as “deadly serious” while administrative costs have increased by $5 million from last year. Next to several articles about the latest round of state funding cuts is a piece on yet another new administrative position: a full time employee in the Committee on Sustainability. I can’t see how “helping to streamline and facilitate the College’s ecological ambitions” provides any benefit to students in terms of attaining a degree and starting a meaningful career. It’s but another brick in the wall of tuition increases, and it’s all because even students and staff no longer consider education a priority.
In the past 20 years, colleges added more full time administrative jobs than teaching jobs, with positions in areas such as the aforementioned sustainability office, counseling, admissions staff, and social programs. College seems to be no longer about getting a degree and using newfound expertise to get a job or make an impact. Today, college is becoming some kind of fantasy camp, with students surrounded by an increasing number of staff whose job it is to keep them entertained. It’s no wonder that many recent graduates just wind up flipping burgers since the emphasis isn’t on learning anymore, but on some kind of poorly defined college experience. Regardless, more and more people are willing to pay for that four year fantasy camp despite the lack of increased education or income once they graduate. When students place their education first and experience later, perhaps tuition will become more affordable.
How can the brakes be applied to the out of control tuition increases? The answer lies in reprioritizing education above more nebulous concerns. The current governor and gubernatorial candidates have been yakking on and on about reviving the economy. What better way to do that then to provide more affordable higher education? More affordable college education will yield a larger pool of graduates ready to make significant contributions to the economy. The state government has direct control over this and the answer is clear: restore state funding. Until then, the Boards of Visitors at state schools can raise in-state tuition to near out-of-state levels, accounting for the tiny difference in state funding. Since many legislators want in-state students to get even more privileges, such a move will be quite the wake up call to the state government.
On the flip side, students must also reorganize their priorities. Without placing education first, students will simply fall back to meaningless jobs with low pay and low contribution to society. Students must realize that the flood of social programs, support staff, and spanking new facilities is meaningless compared to studying hard and earning a degree in a valuable field. In order to rein in costs, students must demand fewer frills while demanding more elements of a high quality education.
If the current trends run their course, the college bubble may become a reality, forcing a massive decline in the quality of higher education. Students will not pay out the nose for overloaded classes, terrible instructors, and few course options. Four years in such conditions will provide no benefit in terms of education or job skills. The best solution is for government and individuals alike to reprioritize higher education.
Avoiding road rage: We’re all on the same team
Pattern recognition is a strong advantage of the massively parallel human brain. We are so good at it that we make up patterns where none truthfully exist. This may be my “face on Mars”, but now that I’ve done some a decent amount of cycling in and around Williamsburg, I’m starting to notice something. On some days drivers would be especially mad, with me being on the receiving end of a few horn blasts, gestures, and snide comments all in the same ride. Then there would be other days where I would go the same route at the same time of day and other drivers would give me plenty of room. Nobody would scream a thing and sometimes even a few drivers would wave at me. Why is this? I’ve got some ideas.
My first observation is that weekends are worse than weekdays. This seems counterintuitive, since one would think that weekend drivers aren’t rushing to or from a job and would be more patient. Maybe the rage just builds during the week and people just want to let off some steam. I will say the traffic is definitely worse on the weekend. I’m betting that slower travel times in combination with a greater pool of possible angry drivers is probably why I get more grief on weekends. However, it isn’t just that the increase in road rage is correlated with weekends. In the past few months, it became apparent that another factor was at play.
I’ve now realized that weekend or not, I’ve never had any nasty encounters when I’m wearing my William and Mary jersey. Cycling clothes are expensive: comfortable shirts and jerseys require me to lay down a least $70, so I’ve only got a handful of jerseys and shorts. All my other jerseys are solid colors and unbranded except for one, which has the school livery. I wind up wearing it a few times every week since my clothing options are limited, and when I go out in it, nobody would even think of touching me. With the William and Mary jersey, it’s like I’m wearing a Superman costume, but with any other jersey, I might as well be Lex Luthor.
This is quite a strange observation, but research has shown that any small similarity between two strangers can help form a strong bond between them. In a recent study, Manchester United fans primed to think about their team loyalty were more likely to help a stranger wearing a Manchester United shirt than a stranger wearing the shirt of a rival team or no team logo at all. When you have a bond with someone, no matter how small, you are more likely to help them if they are in trouble or respect them if they are biking on the road.
Another observation of mine is that the magic jersey has no power in Virginia Beach. I’ve gotten just as much grief wearing it there as I have with other jerseys. There just aren’t enough people that can identify with it as there is in Williamsburg where nearly everyone has some relationship to the school. As a professor or staff member, you don’t want to hit one of your own students. As a student, you wouldn’t want to injure one of your fellow classmates. As a local, you wouldn’t want to insult someone who lives down the street. Even tourists stay well away, knowing I’ve got ties to this place.
I ought to get another William and Mary jersey. Wearing it on a weekday is probably my best bet for avoiding road rage.
The government we deserve
While I was running back to my apartment, I passed an old guy on the sidewalk walking in the other direction. The second I passed him he unleashed the nastiest gas I think I’ve ever heard in public. I still can’t believe he actually farted at me.
A local study says that almost one third of young professional Williamsburg residents intend to leave within four years. Although those polled stated that they liked the area, the main complaint was that the cost of living was too high and average pay was too low. This area just isn’t geared towards younger people, especially those who are recent college graduates. Instead, Williamsburg is focused on retirees and tourists, and those that aren’t in those groups get gassed.
Why? Because those in the local government are mostly older or retired and own businesses that cater to tourists. And who elects them? A dominant contingent of older workers and retirees. Since the most of Williamsburg thinks that anyone under the age of 30 is a nuisance, the government reflects this position. The government and locals protest any affordable or student-oriented housing. An effort is made by the city to prevent homeowners from renting out their properties. The noise ordinances have been strengthened. And of course, there’s the arcane three person rule, which effectively limits housing options for young professionals with a low income. As a student or young professional, you either live elsewhere or live with four or more people illegally. You just hope city officials don’t sue you or randomly inspect your residence to see if more than three unrelated people are living together. The city council even wants to remove the 24 hour warning before inspectors show up at your residence. What happened to the fourth amendment?
Younger people come to live in Williamsburg in two ways. They either grew up here or graduated from William and Mary with a local job offer. I’m more of the second category: I don’t think anyone my age would willingly move to Williamsburg unless they had existing ties here. The environment is just too oppressive for most people my age, with plenty of animosity.
Anyone would think that a grassroots effort could be made to at least get more student friendly officials in local government. It’s hard to do that when the voter registrar blocks student voter applications. Recently, the registrar allowed students to register in Williamsburg, which allowed a student candidate to run for office, but enough AARP members went to the polls to ruin his day.
So here in Williamsburg, most people get what they want out of their government: preventing fewer students and younger professionals from living within the city limits.
A similar situation exists with another local government I am familiar with: Virginia Beach. An overwhelming majority of Virginia Beach residents hate cyclists. Though two deaths have occurred in the past two years, drivers are still bloodthirsty. Recent efforts by cyclists to lower the speed limit on some of the more well traveled cycling routes only serves to make the driving population more enraged (the comments on these articles are insane). The roads aren’t safe for cyclists in Virginia Beach because of high speed limits, it’s because of drivers’ attitudes. Most drivers in Virginia Beach think no cyclist has any business being on a road, and the position of the elected government reflects that. When a cyclist died after being hit from behind, the Commonwealth’s Attorney decided not to prosecute the driver. Furthermore, thanks to the city council, there are no bike lanes in Virginia Beach. A more cyclist-friendly government would promote the installation of bike lanes and provide a more friendly environment for cyclists. Unfortunately, since most residents see bike lanes and more cyclists as an infringement of their personal space, they elect officials that share the same position they do. As a result, we get the situation we have now, with animosity building on all sides.
We elect the government that we deserve on all levels, even at the state and federal level. State governments are running out of money and making huge cutbacks in an attempt to balance their budgets. California is so desperate as to hand out IOUs instead of tax refunds. Since the federal government sees the power to tax its citizens as an indefinite line of credit, there is no mandate to balance the budget and the federal deficit is spiraling out of control. People complain that essential government services are being cut while the federal government is incurring serious debt. However, these people are no different than the government they deride. With almost half of all Americans spending more than they make each year, many voters are in no position to complain: they elected a government that acts just like they do. If people were able to make better spending decisions on an individual level, I would imagine the government they elect would do the same.
Somehow, people expect elected officials to be held to a higher standard then those that elected them. However, those in office act the same way everyone else does, bringing along all the same weaknesses and quirks. Though nobody in Williamsburg runs for office with the position to evict students and young professionals, it happens as a matter of course since those that vote share that belief. Since most Virginia Beach residents are on a crusade against cyclists, elected officials end up adding fuel to the fire. While most Americans acknowledge they have poor spending habits and wish to improve and never do, those in our state and federal legislatures do the same thing. Don’t expect the government to save you from anything since your failures are the same as theirs.
Get Rich Quick: It’s too good to be true
After nearly ten months of work, I finally submitted a paper for review. At the end of next week, I go to Rome to give a conference presentation on work I had started over a year and a half ago. Research, like many things, takes a lot of time and effort to reach a milestone. There are no shortcuts to accomplishment, no matter what some sleazy TV salesman will tell you. People set out with dreams of instant gratification only to face the reality that only time and effort will provide them with reward. Instead of foraging on, they give up. In some cases, when faced with the prospect of immense effort for a small chance of success, others will just cheat. Why is this? What can be changed to provide motivation for long term efforts?
I recall a discussion in the locker room after cross country practice about a teammate I had never met. I don’t recall his name, but this guy had graduated before I even got to college. John, one of the well respected fifth year seniors said this guy wanted to go to NCAAs as part of the seven-man travel squad, but only “wanted to travel to the course, warm up with the team, and get a t-shirt.” He did not want to actually run the race. This guy never made the travel squad to NCAAs. To him, and many others, it’s all about instant gratification without any of the work. Running competitively isn’t like a movie where all the hard work is abstracted away and all that’s shown is the glorious win over the evil opponents. To date, our team has qualified for every national meet since 1997, one of only five schools. To do that takes considerable effort and years of training for hours every day. You can’t just fast forward to the good parts.
The zeitgeist of today is marked by a lack of intrinsic motivation to undertake any long term efforts. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell cites James Flynn’s work on how Asian students work harder and longer on problems than their American counterparts. Given a tough math problem, most American students will work on it for only a short while before giving up. This ethos carries over into other areas. An article in the New York Times states that 95 percent of blogs are abandoned, many of which only have one post. The torrents of traffic and commenters envisioned by these blog posters just doesn’t happen overnight. They think blogging fame will come immediately, but it doesn’t. It takes time to build a reader base. More to the point, the blog also has to have content that people are willing to read. I’ll be surprised if many people read this post or others like it concerning my opinions and everyday life, but most of my traffic comes from my software troubleshooting/debugging and knee microfracture posts. Even in my little corner of the Internet, I have made gradual traffic gains over the months. People just don’t swarm in overnight:
Apparently, the same is true for Twitter: most users either abandon their account after signing up or just make one post. Again, the problem boils down to effort: few are willing to make the effort and post meaningful content at frequent intervals. Followers just don’t appear because you signed up. Like blogs, it isn’t just the frequency of posts, but the value of the content: I really don’t care what you ate for lunch today. I especially don’t care that you got a front row seat at the Apple Developer’s Conference after waiting in line since 4 AM. Most Twitter posts aren’t much better than spam. To attract followers, the posts have to carry some value to those beyond a small circle of friends.
Everyone just wants the massive blog readership or the Twitter following, but couldn’t care less about the content required to generate such traffic. Sometimes, when the desired outcome can’t be achieved with lackluster efforts, many try to lower the bar. Currently, there’s an effort in Virginia Beach to relax the public school grading scale from 7 point to 10 point. Parents think this will even the playing field with other school systems that have switched to a 10 point scale, but it’s really just lowering the standards. Parents want their kid to get in to his or her college of choice and to do it by studying less. Also along these lines, a state representive recently proposed that more in state students should be accepted to Virginia public universities because a constituent complained that the acceptance standards were too tough and he didn’t get in. I’m guessing that this “constituent” was probably the representative’s kid. What is the real secret to getting in to your college of choice? It isn’t done by getting easier As or by pushing out extremely well qualified out of state students. Work harder, and anything can happen.
It’s pretty bad that so many people give up when they realize some effort is involved. It’s worse when people lower their standards of success when their current efforts are clearly lacking. Believe it or not, there are even worse characters out there that will do anything to get instant gratification: cheaters. Instead of working hard for ten months researching state-of-the-art, tweaking out a system design, implementing the design, testing the design against existing works, and finally writing and submitting a research paper, some people are willing to cheat. A recent study reports that an astounding 2% of researchers fake their results. In a similar instance, some colleges are willing to fudge the statistics to improve their rankings. They play with class sizes and give peer institutions poor reviews to improve their standing. Instead of improving the school in an honest way, taking the time to hire more and better qualified faculty, increasing employee pay, and attracting better students, Clemson faked its way up 16 places in U.S. News reviews.
What is the real solution to this lack of motivation? How can more people motivate themselves to post regularly on their blog? How can people stick with something and work hard enough to achieve just rewards? Some slick researchers tried paying students for earning good grades. This approach improved state test scores by nearly 40 percentage points. Did money provide the motivation for these students to work harder and longer on their math problems and not give up? Apparently. Proponents of this system argue that the “real world” functions much in this way: perform better and get paid more. But money can’t be added as an outcome in every scenario. How many blogs or Twitter accounts are raking in the dough? Almost zero, I would guess. Instead, people need intrinsic motivation to produce results over the long term. I don’t write this post because I envision piles of Internet surfers reading and commenting on this. I do it because there’s satisfaction in organizing my thoughts and ideas and writing them down. I don’t care that nobody else will read this, but if someone else finds it interesting, then more power to them.
Aside from writing these inane blog posts, it is intrinsic motivation that keeps me working on long research projects. It’s what gets me up in the morning with the hope that I’ll be able to run normally again after knee surgery. I run slow, go out every other day, only go ten minutes, and feel terrible, but I know if I do it enough I’ll be able to run faster and longer. By keeping at it and going one step at a time, things will get done.
Sidewinder: A Predictive Data Forwarding Protocol for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks
Here is a link to the final version of my SECON 2009 paper:
Sidewinder: A Predictive Data Forwarding Protocol for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks
Matthew Keally, Gang Zhou, Guoliang Xing
IEEE SECON 2009
June 22-26, Rome, Italy, acceptance ratio: 81/431=18.8%
Published
My past year and a half of research-oriented work has resulted in a conference acceptance. This summer, I’ll go to IEEE SECON in Italy to give a presentation on:
Sidewinder: A Predictive Data Forwarding Protocol for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks
In the coming weeks, I’ll have to revise the paper somewhat for publication and then prepare a presentation. As a M.S. student, a lot of my classes involved reading papers and giving class presentations on them. I hadn’t thought much about it at the time, but it really sets everything up for the next phase: presenting your own research. It will be interesting (and challenging) to face down some tough questions on my paper from people all over the world.
In the meantime there’s a whole bunch of other work I’ve got to take care of on a current project. Things are about to get interesting.
School can be more than an education…
…but academics come first.
Another Flat Hat article got my attention, this time about the difficulties of performing well in school while competing in intercollegiate sports. The author, a student-athlete, states that here at William and Mary, a divide exists between athletes and non-athletes. From my experience and the author’s, this divide seems to exist for two reasons.
The first reason is that due to time constraints between school and practice/traveling for competition, athletes self-segregate from other students. Going to class, practice, and doing homework consumed all my (and my teammates’) time and energy, leaving almost no time for any kind of social life. What little free time we had was spent with our roommates, who were also teammates. Living, studying, sleeping, eating, traveling, suffering through workouts, and showering with 40 other guys was enough of a social activity that we didn’t need anyone else. In fact, very few of us had friends or even girlfriends who were not on the team. Anyone who hung out with other non-teammate friends was seen as the odd one out.
Those who wanted to do well in races and in school didn’t do much else except practice and study. If you tried to squeeze in late night parties every week, your performances in school and running suffered. I’ve seen this happen to several teammates, who tried going out on weekends only to bomb tests and races. Anyone who wanted to compete effectively without hurting their grades had to make some sacrifices. Consequently, a lot of non-athletes see us as weird. My sister says my teammates stick out in the already nerdy William and Mary population like a sore thumb: “they’re skinny, don’t drink, have a shaved head…”
Since high school, my coaches have always said that we are students first and athletes second. If school is taking a hit, we should back off on the running. For me, it never came to that, but a few teammates during my five years of eligibility did quit the team citing academics. Nearly everyone on the team set high standards for themselves academically, and few failed to hit these standards. Almost everyone on the team that’s graduated since I’ve been here has gone on to graduate school of some sort, many to law or medical school. There aren’t many student-athletes at William and Mary that I’ve met that haven’t done well academically, but this high level of academic performance seems to be the exception, rather than the norm.
At other schools, student-athletes really do seem to live up to the “dumb jock on scholarship” stereotype. USA Today reported on how nearly all student-athletes on DI football and basketball teams major in the same discipline, usually something like “social sciences,” or “management.” They pick the easy way out to keep their grades high enough to compete and somehow many of them still fail to graduate. This is where NCAA policy should really push towards getting a useful degree not just “majoring in eligibility.” Those that do graduate “have been hesitant to cite their degree on job applications,” since their major was worthless.
The thought of incompetent athletes flunking out of the easiest classes really hits a nerve with the average William and Mary student, who most likely busts his or her butt to get through Organic Chemistry. Odds are that student’s classmates are also members of the basketball, tennis, track, and football teams, among others. William and Mary boasts a nearly 100 percent graduation rate with all of its teams and 36 Academic All-Americans since 1992.
Money is the second reason for the athlete and non-athlete divide. In the comments section of the article, a lot of students believe that the teams at William and Mary get their budgets and athletic scholarships entirely from the $1,259 per year athletic fee tacked on to tuition. They feel cheated that their tuition money is going to pay for others’ athletic scholarships. This is hardly the case. All athletic scholarships are funded from endowments and alumni donations, not from tuition. Without a strong alumni base, the athletic programs would be nonexistent. One commenter mused that he wasn’t able to use the athletic fields or run on the new track because priority went to athletic teams. Again, those fields and the new track were paid entirely by alumni donations, which specified their use for athletics. With respect with complaints about the athletic fee in general, there are plenty of fees that I pay in my tuition that go towards school programs that I never took advantage of. There are also plenty of government programs that I pay for in my taxes that I never use, either.
To me, non-athletes complain about athletic scholarships in the same manner that out-of-state students complain about in-state tuition. Out-of-state students had a choice to attend a public school in their own state and pay less money, but they didn’t (they also don’t pay VA state tax). Non-athletes had a choice to work hard in a sport in high school and potentially get an athletic scholarship, but they didn’t. As for athletic slotting, plenty of non-athletes get accepted in the same manner, but due to their socioeconomic status.
At William and Mary, we have our cake and eat it too. We can be successful students while kicking butt as athletes.
Maple Pecan Granola Recipe
Until college, cereal was something only to be consumed at breakfast. It was something I ate without much of a liking for it, but I had it every morning with milk and orange juice.
Then, I got to college and faced the experience of eating in the dining halls. Our entire cross country team would pile into the Caf every night after practice and sit in the same cluster of tables. Most of the time, we were exhausted from whatever workout or long run we had done that day and were dying for food. Of course, the stingy workers would only hand out a few pellets of nasty roast beef or a few noodles of pasta after standing in line for ten minutes. We were starving — give us more!
“Get back in line,” the workers retorted.
Thus, after whatever inhaling whatever meager rations the Caf workers gave us, everyone on the team finished their dinner with a nightly ritual: cereal. Cereal wasn’t portion controlled by the miserly Caf workers, so we ate a lot of it. When I first arrived as a freshman, I couldn’t believe everyone else ate cereal for dinner. It seemed so out of place, but soon enough, I found myself doing it every night along with the rest of my teammates.
The Caf always had Kellog’s granola, which in some way or another became my cereal of choice for breakfast and dinner. A bowl of it in the morning gave me most of the energy I needed to get through a day of class and practice. It was also great after plenty of grueling workouts. So, I not only ate cereal with almost every meal, but I became addicted to granola.
At first, I stuck to the Kellog’s brand, which I ate at the Caf. It wasn’t until my sophomore year that I discovered bulk granolas in the grocery stores, while a few years later I found Trader Joe’s, which sold the same bulk granolas as well as other granola-based cereals for cheap. All the while I continued to eat cereal for dinner while at school: my parents would have a fit if I did that at home. Then, after screwing around on the Internet, I found that it was easy to make your own granola with a minimum of ingredients. I found a great recipe here and also here, but my version is as follows:
Preheat oven to 275 and combine the following in a large mixing bowl:
- 4 cups rolled oats
- 1 cup pecans
- 1/3 cup, heaping, packed brown sugar
- pinch of salt
- 4 tsp canola oil
- 1 cup pure maple syrup (I use Grade B, but Grade A Dark Amber is also good)
Place on a cookie sheet with cooking spray. Bake for about 40 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes to allow the edges and center to dry evenly. When the oats turn golden brown and the syrup has been absorbed, it’s done.
Since I don’t eat in the dining halls anymore, I wonder if my old teammates still finish off every dinner in the Caf with a bowl of cereal.
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