Britt Murphey
Julie Book
ENGL 1213
22 October 2012
Employees or Not: Why Student Athletes Should Be Paid
For many years now, there has been the big question of “Should college student athletes be getting paid for their hard work?” Being a student athlete myself, I understand how money and time can get pretty tight. It can get hard balancing schoolwork with practices, games, and traveling, so adding a job into that mix is close to impossible for most student athletes. Especially getting into junior and senior year, college classes tend to become more serious and harder because the athlete’s future is near and the professors have to make sure their students are ready for the real world. Students also have to start to think about the big loans they have to pay back in the upcoming years. I propose that colleges should come up with a plan to help out student athletes in the financial area.
Yes there is financial aid and scholarships, but with today’s economy most athletes might not get financial aid because according to their schools, their parents’ salaries are too high or the scholarships they do get offered only pays for a part of the athlete’s tuition. I have come up with three ideas that could benefit student athletes like myself that struggle with money from day to day. The first idea is that colleges should set up jobs around the town or within the campus specifically for the athletes, that work around their schedule and pay them weekly for their services. This would give students an opportunity to have small cash in their pocket for meals, school supplies and other small necessities to get through college comfortably. According to an article from the Washington Post the U-Conn. Huskies’ star guard, Shabazz Napier, told reporters “That sometimes he goes to bed “starving” because he can’t afford food”. If a big college star like Napier, on a full ride scholarship, cannot even afford a meal, how are the other student athletes who have partial...