It"s that time of year again. With tax returns to file, finals to study for and class schedules to balance, sleep is hardly an option for many University students. But this semester, student athletes will be able to rest a little easier thanks to a new policy giving them priority class registration times. Instead of receiving randomly assigned appointment times within their credit brackets like every other student, athletes have been bumped to the earliest times in their respective brackets. However this policy shows how the University raises the concerns of athletes ahead of normal students it is also unfair to athletes and non-athletes alike.

This change comes amidst growing concern about athletes" academic success. The graduation rate for all student athletes is currently around 60 percent and the graduation rate for football and basketball players is in the mid-20 percent range.

Defenders of the policy argue that athletes should be given first priority because their rigorous practice schedules often conflict with the classes they want to take. University Associate Provost for Academic Affairs Lester Monts even went so far as to defend the policy on the grounds that it is not as severe as similar policies at other universities, where "athletes go before all students." But a bad policy is a bad policy, its degree of unfairness non-withstanding.

While practice schedules are time-consuming (up to 20 hours per week) and physically demanding, this is not a valid reason to give athletes the first crack at classes. To do so is to assume that non-athletes do not also participate in time-consuming, physically demanding extracurricular activities. Many students work to pay their bills, do volunteer work and/or belong to any number of student organizations on campus. Their non-academic schedules are not necessarily more flexible than student athletes".

By giving preferential treatment to athletes, the University implicitly says that athletics are more important than any other extracurricular activities. Indeed, it says that athletics are more important than academics. Instead of demanding that coaches schedule practices more accommodating to the academic schedules of their teams, the University is demanding that athletes be able to schedule classes around practices.

This policy is unfair to non-athletes because it guarantees them later registration times for no good reason and it is unfair to athletes because it perpetuates the sports-before-studies mentality of the Athletic Department. As coaches require athletes to practice more hours per week than they go to class, the University is effectively nodding its head in agreement. "Practice times," it is saying, "are not the problem. The problem is that you"re not registering for classes early enough." With both athletic and academic leaders encouraging student athletes to put their schoolwork second, is it any wonder their graduation rates are so low? Student athletes are just one demographic on this vast, diverse campus. They are no more or less important than anyone else and they should not be treated as such. The University should stop giving them earlier access to class registration times.