What’s AHEAD Poll Results: Intercollegiate Athletics, An Important Component of Higher Education?

The most recent AHEAD poll provides insight into what higher education leaders are thinking with regard to intercollegiate athletics. Most—though not all—higher education leaders believe that intercollegiate athletics are an important component of higher education. Some leaders, however, articulate concerns.

Problems in intercollegiate athletics are regularly featured in both the higher education press and popular media. Recent stories raise questions about the role of academic advisers in ensuring the academic success of student athletes, the roles of presidents and faculty in decisions about athletics, the right of student athletes to unionize, the distribution of scholarships to athletes, and the health, safety, and compensation of student athletes. Given these and many other concerns—why do colleges and universities continue to have intercollegiate athletics programs?