Author: [no author name found]
Does Middlebury really want to assess the value of its students to the College community by group and grade point average? The difference between the 3.05 average for athletes and the 3.29 for Middlebury students as a whole (1999) is, after all, only between fine gradations of the same grade: "B."
Most Middlebury students do have time-consuming extracurricular commitments, but few if any of these require the regimen of practice, workouts, travel and frequent competitions that are givens for varsity athletes. To maintain a B average under these conditions at one of the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the United States shows discipline and seriousness of academic purpose.
Middlebury already has scholar athletes. Celebrating their academic performance would seem more appropriate than singling them out for a type of scrutiny and standards of achievement that are not applied to any other group.
Susan Walker '04
Rethinking the Athletic Policy
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