Professor Deneen's column in the Nov. 11th issue of the Daily Princetonian again raises the specter of "The Jock School," in the discussion of intellectual life on campus. I am pleased that Prof. Deneen does not end his analysis there, choosing instead to call on the faculty for introspection. This introspection is a needed first step in moving beyond the Jock School excuse.
I should say that I am not, nor have I ever been a student athlete here. I'm primarily a musician, and have been described a few times as "a theater person." As far as I can tell, "theater people" are the natural enemies of athletes in the realm of campus life.
The primary problem with the intellectual climate of the University is that everyone focuses on their niche, whatever that niche happens to be. The only way to improve intellectual life on campus is to get people to move beyond the spheres of their personal activities, whatever they may be.
Those who claim that we attend a school that is focused on Athletics have clearly never been to a football game with a nearly empty student section.
It is true that, relatively speaking, there are a lot of student athletes on campus. This alone does not create a Jock School. I would bet most student athletes have very little time to attend or care about other sports teams because they are so focused on their own activities.
Of course, this attitude is not limited to athletes. Many students on the artistic side of the spectrum are guilty of the same insulation. Dancers don't necessarily attend any of the Jazz Ensemble concerts, many musicians have probably never seen a show at Theater~Intime. Many actors have never set foot in the Art Museum. And yet, it is popular to blame athletes for the problems of campus intellectual climate.
Last spring, I attended a discussion with many faculty members and employees involved in the arts on campus about how to improve the status of the arts on campus. This forum quickly dissolved into a ranting session about the amount of support that athletics receives at the expense of the arts.
Even the administration seems to agree that athletes are part of the problem. The Seven Week rule, recently passed by Ivy League presidents, states that there must be seven weeks in which no organized athletic practices or training can occur during a sport's off season, giving the students more time for other pursuits.
However, the University does not, for example, support efforts to keep theater technicians out of the tech shop for a certain amount of time, despite the fact that many who are involved in theater spend as many hours preparing for shows as athletes do training.
Those that I know in the theater community would claim that theater enhances the campus community much more than athletics, and therefore doesn't need the administration to limit them. I believe that this attitude, which exists in all facets of University life, is the root of our problem. The University community includes academics, athletics, and the arts. All should be appreciated, but not at the expense of the others. They all have value.
Most of us are here because we brought something beyond academics to the University community. For some, that was athletic skill, for others, artistic talent. Whatever that talent, we should strive to share it with the rest of the University. As members of the University community, we must be able to appreciate the efforts of others if we truly want to enhance the intellectual life of the University.
The first step toward a more vibrant intellectual community is the step that each of us takes out of the spheres of our personal activities.
So, in the coming weeks, I urge musicians to take in a show, athletes to attend a concert, artists to attend a football game, and everyone to visit the Art Museum and attend a lecture sponsored by a department or program.
Of course we're all busy, but if we really want to improve intellectual life on campus, we must all look to ourselves, and not simply look for an excuse. Patrick Miller is a politics major from Waupun, Wis. He can be reached at pmiller@princeton.edu.
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