Athletes’ priority enrollment needs limits

For student athletes, class registration is a balancing act between meeting Georgetown’s extensive academic requirements, qualifying to play under NCAA standards, and leaving enough time for hours of practice and study. In order for athletes to have more control over their schedule, the University offers some of them priority registration, which allows them to enroll in classes before the registration period for the general student body. Unfortunately, as the Voice reported in its Jan. 20 issue, athletes’ priority registration has become a detriment to the academic experience of some students.

The Women and Gender Studies program has seen players sign up for classes en masse, preventing other students, including some who intend to major or minor in Women and Gender Studies, from registering. Professors in the Women and Gender Studies program complained of large groups of athletes, often from the same sport, detracting from the diversity of a class and disrupting schedules with frequent absences.

The registrar now prevents student athletes from taking up more than 50 percent of a class, but this policy should be reexamined and expanded to maintain equity in the class registration process. Georgetown’s administration should formally implement a new priority registration cap, somewhere closer to 20 percent, applied to every class in every department. It should come with the additional caveat that no more than 10 percent of the students within a class can be athletes from the same sport. When possible, coaches and athletic officials should be more flexible with athletes’ schedules and should help limit the number of athletes who enroll in a specific class.

Georgetown benefits tremendously from its student athletes, who help raise the University’s national profile and  contribute to Georgetown’s allure. Most athletes are just as concerned with academics as any other Georgetown student. Their schedules are tight and they deserve priority registration. No athlete should be prevented from entering a class in a subject that really interests him or her because of a cap on athlete enrollment. Athletes who strongly desire to be in a class, but are unable to get in during priority registration, will still have this chance during normal registration. But every student, athlete or not, deserves an equal shot at the education Georgetown is renowned for.