When students are preparing to begin their journey into higher education, there are multiple factors that prospective students should consider when beginning their search. Students are suggested to consider an array of factors, such as location, size, academic quality, reputation, the cost to attend, choice of majors, as well as other factors. For many prospective students choosing a school with an esteemed, successful athletic program is becoming a huge deciding factor in choosing their college. What happens if two of the biggest factors in choosing a school conflict with one another? The primary purpose of universities are to provide a safe, learning environment for students to discover, critically examine and share knowledge. Collegiate athletics plays a supporting role in higher education’s mission to enhance the sense of community and strengthen the university identity. This paper seeks to examine the role that collegiate athletics play in affecting the learning environment and campus safety.
College athletic programs have become more than just an opportunity for students to play a sport that they love. Athletic programs are now a multi-billion dollar industry and are intrinsically linked to a school’s branding and reputation. Collegiate athletics can bring many positive changes to a university. In addition to enhancing a university’s sense of community and the branding a university, colleges that have a notable athletic program has been proven to have a positive impact on a university’s enrollment and distinctiveness.
In 1984, Boston College quarterback, Doug Flutie, threw a last-second touchdown that secured a win for his university. After this major win, Boston College received a 30 percent increase in applications the following two years. The American phenomenon of having a successful college sports team increase the exposure and prominence of a university is called the “Flutie Effect”. Marketing experts and deans of universities across the country immediately recognized the power of the “Flutie Effect”. This phenomenon presented universities with the idea to utilize a successful athletic program into increased enrollment and branding for their university. Some of the more elite athletic programs can even turn a profit for their university. The appeal of having an athletic program is a win-win for many universities.
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Campus safety has become a growing concern for universities across the country, given recent campus shootings and heightened attention to incidences of sexual assault. Universities have since devoted significant resources to campus security and safety measures. Lawmakers have maintained an active interest in protecting and maintaining a safe environment for college students. In 1986, Jeanne Clery was raped and murdered in her college dorm room. Jeanne’s parents argued that if they had known the crime statistics of the university they would not have enrolled their daughter at that school. Lawmakers agreed that universities should be open and transparent about all campus crime statistics.
This tragedy inspired the Clery Act (1990), this law requires universities to release detailed breakdowns of their crime statistics annually, requires institutions to issue timely warnings to alert the campus community to imminent threats, conduct emergency notifications and emergency response testing, maintain crime and fire safety policies, procedures, and practices. In 2013, the Clery Act was amended to address issues related to sexual offenses. This amendment requires universities to compile statistics for incidents of dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking; universities are now required to include policies, procedures and programs regarding these incidents in the institution’s annual security report. Universities embrace these mandated responsibilities to keep their students and faculty safe from internal and external threats. A safe campus environment is a necessity for universities, students, faculty, and their families.
Even though universities have to be transparent with their crime statistics, unsurprisingly crimes still occur on college campuses. Among the various types of on-campus crimes reported in 2015, there were 12,300 burglaries, constituting 45 percent of all criminal incidents. Other commonly reported crimes included forcible sex offenses (8,000 incidents, or 29 percent of crimes) and motor vehicle theft (3,300 incidents, or 12 percent of crimes). In addition, 2,300 aggravated assaults and 1,000 robberies were reported. Despite school’s being transparent and reporting their crime statistics, it is possible that the true number of sexual assaults or other crimes occurring on college campuses are not fully represented, because many cases go unreported or the crimes take place off-campus.
Universities recognize that revealing statistics concerning crime on their campus is bad for public relations. High-profile media coverage of crimes at a university can significantly reduce applications. A Harvard study found that a scandal covered in a long-form news article leads to a ten percent drop in applications the following year. This has roughly the same impact on applications as the college dropping ten spots in the U.S. News and World Report college rankings. If a campus scandal garnered more than five mentions in The New York Times, there was a subsequent drop of 9 percent in applications the following academic year. Universities fear losing enrollment numbers and getting a less qualified pool of applicants once their school’s crimes are exposed to the public.
