How Can We Ensure that Student-athletes are Having Positive Experiences During their University Careers?

Abstract

A number of studies have investigated the relationship between faculty members and student-athletes (Lawrence, 2008; Williams, Colles, & Allen, 2010). However, these studies have mostly focused on faculty perceptions of student-athletes with the opinion of students being largely overlooked. As such, this study aimed to overcome this gap and investigated student-athlete views of their interactions with faculty members. Interviews with student-athletes were conducted to better understand the totality of their experiences in university. Results from this study demonstrated that experiences of student-athletes may be different than of other students, but small and meaningful changes on the part of the different layers of the institution could result in better experiences for these students. A discussion of changes and recommendations will be provided with hopes of gathering thoughts about how to best move forward in interacting with student-athletes within our campuses.