Should College Athletes be Paid? (Coursework Sample)

Name:
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Option 1: College Athletes
Introduction
In understanding whether it was appropriate to pay college athletes, I conducted an interview on a college athlete coach. The coach’s name is Ishmael Abdul and he seemed contented with his career and thus carries his duties with passion. The coach has been in the career for a period of four years and has led a number of athletes in colleges in winning different awards. The coach has risen to the position of a senior coach in the college through his dedicated service to the institution. He is entitled to ensuring that the students interested in athletes get the right skills. This is in addition to ensuring that the athletes maintain athletes’ ethics of remaining free from drugs. In this paper an opinion is given on whether the athletes should be paid, based on the responses from the interviewee.
Opinion on payment for college athletes
From the interviewee’s point of view, the athletes in colleges should be paid in order to motivate them. It is noted that students who participate in athletics spend a significant amount of their time practicing (Hartnett 1). In some instances, the practicing period in one week is slightly longer that the average working hours for other employees in the field. This means that the dedication of the athletes needs to be recognized. In most of the time, the students miss their classes especially when they are participating in important events in athletes (McCormickn & McCormick, 76). This is despite the fact that they have paid fees like other students who do not participate in any of the games.
The students further need to be paid when they participate in the athletics events because some institutions gain money from this. When the athletes win different awards in such events, their institutions get some sum of money (Meshefejian 16). The money mostly goes to the management of the school and the trainers, with nothing going to the students. The efforts of the students need to be rewarded with money through payment (Rheenen 8). This improves the morale of the athletes who practice even harder to win more wards for their institutions. It is also common to find institutions advertising their programs through the use of their athletes. This further supports the need for athletes to get paid as they help attract more customers to the institutions.
On the other hand, the athletes need not to be paid for their participation in athletics representing their institutions. According to the interviewee, athletics is one of the co-curricular activities that the students are expected to participate in. Through the participation in athletics, the students have the advantage of keeping their body fit physically, which boosts their health. It is also recognized that participation in the athletics helps the students to network with other people who may be important in their job market (Martin 1). The compensation that comes from participation and excelling in athletes as a college student in terms of network is more than just payments that could be given by the institution. Therefore, it is important to give the students some stipend to motivate them, but the aim should be to build their career and develop networking.
Conclusion
Through the interview, I was able to understand the importance of games and especially the athletes where students are directly involved. The students need to be boosted in their morale through being given some money to cater for their needs. Further, the fact that colleges’ makes money from their participation means they should gi...