Study Hall

In observing the interactions between athletes at the Fulton Center, many questions began to be raised. Such as are Athletes just as clicky as the regular student body, are they more motivated than the average student, and are the requirements placed upon them to strenuous?

The athletic program requires all student athletes who are freshman and transfers no matter their GPA to have a certain amount of study hall hours. All other athletes such as sophomores, juniors, and seniors can be exempted from study hall depending upon the fact rather or not they have a certain GPA, which for most male teams is a 2.5, but for female teams is a 3.0, which raises the question are we as a society without realizing it putting to much pressure on our female athletes by expecting more from them. I mean aren’t they all athletes so shouldn’t the GPA requirement to be exempted from study hall be the same for them all.

The amount of hours placed upon each individual athlete solely depends on their sport, and generally female athletic teams have more study hall hours then the male teams, which also raises another double standard. Shouldn’t all student athletes have the same amount of study hall hours? They are all student athletes, right?

In observing the student athletes during study hall, I found that the older students, who were transfers, were more so geared to going to the individual cubicles that had computers in them. The ones who shut the doors tended to be more focused, whereas the ones who left the doors open tended to be more interested in meeting new people. Boys for the most part were the ones who had their doors open, and the girls tended to be the ones with their doors focused. But for the most part student athletes did their best to try to stay off the side where the athletic directors offices were, and if they were over there it was more of a last resort. As I watched the student athletes choose their cubical they generally started on the side that had absolutely no offices on it. The closer they got o the athletic directors offices the looks on their faces gradually changed the closer they were.

Freshman generally were more so interested and inclined to going into the lounge area where there were multiple chairs that reclined and enabled you to put their feet up in a more social atmosphere. This area was generally louder in comparison to the rest of the areas were students were studying. But even in this lounge area girls and boys stayed sitting by or near their friends, only exchanging words with other groups occasionally then slowly regressing back to their individual groups of friends. Also in the lounge the student athletes were more so likely to fall asleep, and when the monitors came around to regulate sound and make sure that everyone was actually studying they would have a friend wake them up, hand them a book, and make them look like they were actually being active.

The more team oriented sports such as basketball and football generally were more interested in going into the labs that had multiple computers in them so that they could be around their fellow teammates. What I also noticed was the fact that there were more girls in study hall then boys; this may have something to do with the fact that football is currently in season. But from listening to other students when football does have their study hall sessions they are organized and mandatory times where coaches can keep an eye on them. Overall in the first week of my fieldwork study I was able to pick up on trends that existed in the community of the athletic world here at New Mexico State University.