CS 39Q:
Priorities Under Pressure: A Critical Assessment of How the University's Core Mission is Affected by Intercollegiate Athletics
Professors Brian Barsky, Margaretta Lovell, and Laura Nader
University of California, Berkeley
Assignments, Papers, and Weekly Reading
Research Paper Due: The deadline for the paper will be Thursday Dec. 1st, 2011 at the beginning of class. The topic will be one each student selects during our second or third class from a list of potential subjects; students will be researching their individual topics all semester exploring books, journal articles, online commentary, personal interviews, and raw data derived from UCB web sources.
Term Paper Guidelines and Suggestions
Our paper assignment is intended to sharpen your skills in the direction of discovery and analysis. To think critically is at the heart of this course. Specifically, you are asked to choose a question or an assertion that interests you and show how making connections, examining evidence, contextualizing and or comparing helps you to understand “the eye that sees,” with help from two or three of the readings and at least one of the invited speakers.
To discover, you will need to question the obvious -- questions such as: How is it that the U.S. is unique among industrialized countries that institutionalizes and supports intercollegiate sports? How is it that in response to the needs of war, the U.S. chose sports as a means to improving any wartime performance of young men, whereas after discovering that their young men were deficient in health, the Canadians turned instead to health care for all as a way to improve the health of Canadians? Why has it taken so long to research sports-related injuries not only to the brain but to the body life cycle in general? Why is that here at Berkeley, Operation Excellence excluded Intercollegiate Athletics from its financial review? Is it true that intercollegiate athletics creates a "Bread and Circus" environment that undermines undergraduate education not just for the athletes but for all students? Why is winning important? How and why do myths get perpetuated? Is it true that athletes who earn millions of dollars do not use their money to improve civic life? How does commercialism, militarism, and parochialism enter into all this? What happens to fun? These are some questions that stimulate our thinking; your own curiosity may well add to this list.
The paper should be about 8-10 pages long with a bibliography and references as in the usual college term paper. The paper may be shorter, but the shorter it is the tighter the reasoning should be.
To summarize the procedure:
1. From your own observations, select a question that interests you.
2. Explore how a preliminary examination of the question might proceed using class materials.
3. Make comparisons/connections or contrasts that might be pursued in the future.
Assignments and Weekly Reading
Assignments for August 25th, 2011:
Read Chapter 6 “The Governance of Intercollegiate Athletics” on pages 104-125 in James Duderstadt's book Intercollegiate Athletics and the American University: A University President’s Perspective
Assignments for September 1st, 2011:
1. Do some research and learn about each of the guest speakers
2. Read and think about the “Motions”
3. Read Chapter 10 “Integrity” on pages 215-230 in James Duderstadt's book Intercollegiate Athletics and the American University: A University President’s Perspective
Assignments for September 8th, 2011:
Read the Preface, Introduction, and Chapter 1 of Murray Sperber's book Beer and Circus
Assignments for September 15th, 2011:
Read Chapter 1 of David (Dave) Meggyesy's book Out of Their League
Assignments for September 22nd, 2011:
1. Read Chapters 4 and 19 of Murray Sperber's book Beer and Circus
2. Read "The Shame of College Sports"
by Taylor Branch from The Atlantic, October 2011
(available on the "Resource Materials" section of this website)
Assignments for September 29th, 2011:
1. Read Chapter 4 "The Evolution of College Sports" on pages 69-86 and Chapter 8 "The Commercialization of College Sports" on pages 149-188 of James Duderstadt's book Intercollegiate Athletics and the American University: A University President’s Perspective
2. Read "Budget Plan Bans Taxpayer Funds For UC Athletes"
from The San Francisco Chronicle, June 19, 2011
3. Watch
South Park's "Crack Baby Athletic Association"
(original air date: 25 May 2011)
Assignments for October 4th, 2011:
1. Read Chapters 3 and13 of Murray Sperber's book Beer and Circus
2. Read "Skeptics Cast Wary Eyes on Plans to Finance Cal Stadium Upgrade"
from The New York Times, September 15, 2011
Assignments for October 6th, 2011:
Begin serious research toward your term paper; bring a thoughtful list of bullet points for your Motion, considering the issue from multiple directions.
Assignments for October 13th, 2011:
1. Read Chapter 9 “The Student-Athlete” in James Duderstadt's book Intercollegiate Athletics and the American University: A University President’s Perspective
2. Read "Review of William Rhoden, 'Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete' " by Kadence Otto, (2009), available at: "http://ebookbrowse.com/kadence-otto-book-review-forty-million-dollars-slave-2-due-11-23-09-doc-d96467052"
3. Read Chapter 6 "Sports on Campus" in Robert L. Simon's book Fair Play: The Ethics of Sport
(available on the "Resource Materials" section of this website)
4. Read Chapter 6 "The Entertainment Reality" in Peter A. French's book Ethics and College Sports: Ethics, Sports, and the University
(available on the "Resource Materials" section of this website)
Assignments for October 20th, 2011:
Read pages 1-35 of "The Antitrust Economics of NCAA Restrictions On Athletic Scholarships" by Roger G. Noll (available on the "Resource Materials" section of this website)
Assignments for October 27th, 2011:
Read Part IV (Chapters 11-13) "Tilting at Windmills" on pages 263-305 in James Duderstadt's book Intercollegiate Athletics and the American University: A University President’s Perspective
Assignments for November 3rd, 2011:
1. Read "Challenging the Myth: A Review of the Links Among College Athletic Success, Student Quality, and Donations" by Robert Frank (available on the "Resource Materials" section of this website)
2. Read "The Relationship Between Athletics and Higher Education Fund Raising: The Myths Far Outweigh the Facts," by Ellen J. Staurowsky, Report Prepared for the United States Department of Education Commission on Opportunities in Athletics (available on the "Resource Materials" section of this website)
Assignments for November 10th, 2011:
1. Read Chapter 7 "The Bottom Line: Deficit or Surplus?" on pages 149-172 in Andrew Zimbalist's book Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-Time College Sports (available on EBRARY at http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/record=b13638296~S1)
2. Read Chapter 7 "Financing College Athletics" on pages 126-146 in James Duderstadt's book Intercollegiate Athletics and the American University: A University President’s Perspective
3. Read “Winning and giving: football results and alumni giving at selective private colleges and universities”, by Turner, Sarah E. ; Meserve, Lauren A. ; and Bowen, William G., pp. 813-826 in Social Science Quarterly, Volume 82, Number 4, December 2001 (available on the "Resource Materials" section of this website)
Assignments for December 1st, 2011:
1. Read "Transformational Developments at the Interface of Race, Sport, and the Collegiate Athletic Arms Race in the Age of Globalization" by Harry Edwards, Journal of Intercollegiate Sport, Vol. 4, Issue 1, June 2011, pp.18 – 31 (available on the "Resource Materials" section of this website)
2. Read "Handicapping the Race: The Management, Evolution, and Impact of Black Sports Images and Outcomes in the Mainstream Media" by Edwards (available on the "Resource Materials" section of this website)
Assignments for December 2nd, 2011:
Read "Penn State and Berkeley: A Tale of Two Protests," by Dave Zirin, The Nation blog, November 10, 2011 (click here to read it)