Dueling narratives in higher education media surround new Center at UT Austin
Each morning I receive email newsletters from two trade publications in higher education: The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside…
Each morning I receive email newsletters from two trade publications in higher education: The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. Often, the news of the day overlaps, as one would expect it to. Today, I noticed distinctly different takes on the same story.
Inside Higher Ed ran a “Quick Take” describing a new Center for college athletes begun at Texas. Its headline was “UT Austin Starts Leadership Center for College Athletes”.
The Center for Sports Leadership and Innovation, which will be led by Daron Roberts, a former NFL assistant coach, will promote faculty research related to college athletes, develop a financial literacy program, and create a training and certification program for high school coaches that would encourage early intervention for troubling or violent athlete behavior. (Inside Higher Ed, 2014, para. 1)
The Chronicle of Higher Education published a more in-depth piece, bylined by Katherine Mangan and titled “New U. of Texas Center Will Seek to Curb Troubling Behavior by Athletes”.
The announcement comes at a time when college athletics is under intense scrutiny nationwide for off-field behaviors including sexual assault and for academic shortcuts aimed at keeping athletes eligible to play when they aren’t doing college-level work. (Mangan, 2014, para. 2)
Clearly, the narrative advanced by The Chronicle story is in keeping with this fall’s headlines about off-field issues (frequently violent behavior) in athletics, particularly the NFL and college football. This narrative is certainly worth keeping alive and precipitated the need for this program.
In its story, The Chronicle leads with character issues first, and links to its own articles from this fall which detailed rape allegations at Florida, UNC-Chapel Hill academic fraud, ethical dilemmas for college athletic advisors, and sexual-assault charges filed against two former UT-Austin football players.
The University of Texas’ flagship campus will open a sports-leadership center that will help coaches instill strong character in high-school players and teach college athletes how to manage their money better, officials said on Monday. (Mangan, 2014, para. 1)
The university’s president, William C. Powers Jr., acknowledged the turmoil swirling around college sports in announcing the creation of the Center for Sports Leadership and Innovation. (Mangan, 2014, para. 3)
Perhaps this is justified as The Center’s news conference had a representative from the National Domestic Violence Hotline in attendance and she is quoted in the news release. You can watch the 23-minute news conference on the UT website.
But the framing of this story in these publications presents a dramatically different view. Inside Higher Ed lists financial literacy first, followed by the program aimed at high school athletes. In keeping with its narrative, The Chronicle led with character first, followed by fiscal management.
Further, that both stories were published by outlets focused on higher education suggests the focus of the Center will be on college athletes. However, after reading the UT Austin news release and watching the news conference, it is clear the emphasis on character development will begin with high school coaches. Founding Director Daron Roberts even discusses the importance of coaches developing moral character in school-aged children in the news conference.
So, if the focus of this Center is on developing a coaching certification for high school coaches and developing financial literacy for UT student-athletes, why “troubling behavior by athletes” headline? It strikes me the focus of this Center is not even on college athlete behavior, but rather it seeks to shift the responsibility of grooming athlete behavior to high school coaches.
Coach certification programs don’t generate page views, or advance narratives.