Greendylan

Hi, I’ve been a longtime lurker, but this seems like an appropriate time to offer my perspective. As an instructor at North Texas I’ve had many student athletes in my classes. I can assure you that the athletic department here is extremely diligent in its efforts to monitor student attendance and grades. To give you an example, one week I received incessant phone calls and e-mails from the athletic department to verify that a female golfer had not missed a single class! She hadn’t. I don’t think she missed once (except for university sponsored travel) all semester. They informed me of suspicions that she had missed a single day of classes, and had my records confirmed that, they would have held her out of an upcoming tournament. I’ve had several football players in my classes, and in my experience they have been some of the most dedicated and enthusiastic students. I do understand that this is not always the case. But, they certainly are under scrutiny from the athletic department in regards to attendance and overall progress in the class. I have been fortunate enough never to have had an issue relating to attendance with any of the football players in my classes. Of course, I cannot speak for the North Texas academic community as a whole, but I just thought I would contribute my individual perspective on this point.