Survey shows athletes make it to class

Acacia O'Connor Sports Editor

Last spring, the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), a group of 15 students who address issues affecting the physical health of the Vassar community, conducted a student survey. The survey was meant to determine how often students, athletes and non-athletes, miss classes and why.
“There are lots of misconceptions at this school about athletes,” said SAAC member and member of the women’s basketball team Natalie Serkowski ’06. “The results of the SAAC survey should convince people that many athletes here are hard-working and serious students, that they don't miss class more than non-athletes. When they do have to miss class for games, athletes are responsible enough to notify their teachers ahead of time.”

The 652 participants in the survey included a significant number of students from each class year and were nearly split between males and females. The survey asked each student to indicate the number of classes they had missed or would miss per semester and per month. It also asked the student to identify which reasons he or she was most likely to skip and whether or not they informed their professors beforehand.

The data, which SAAC released this month, reveals no statistically significant differences between athletes and non-athletes in the number of classes missed per month and per semester. Of those surveyed, 30% of athletes and 35% of non-athletes said they would miss one to two classes per semester; 30% of athletes and 36% of non-athletes said they would miss three to four classes per semester; 37% and 46% of athletes and non-athletes, respectively, indicated they would miss one class per month.

In the data regarding common reasons for missing class, the main divergence was in the number of students citing that an “other commitment” caused them to miss class. Fifty-one percent of athletes compared with only seven percent of non-athletes said other commitments caused them to miss class. Of 195 athletes surveyed, 112 explicated that the commitment causing them to miss class was an athletic competition.

There was also little statistical difference on the matter of informing professors of their future absence from class, with over 42% of athletes and 46% of non-athletes indicating they “sometimes” informed their professors, and 27% of each reporting “yes” they did. Of the 83 athletes who answered “sometimes,” 64 added in additional space that if they know they will miss a class for a sports event, they inform their professors ahead of time.