Research Prospectus

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been debating for several years whether student athletes should be compensated or not. Many people believe athletes should not be paid, probably because they only see the glamorous side of collegiate competitors. One must understand that student athletes dedicate a large amount of time, risk the health of their bodies, and forfeit almost all aspects of being a typical college student.

My thesis question is the following: “Should student athletes get paid?” Since I am arguing affirmatively that athletes deserve compensation, I will need to include how beneficial athletes are to a university. For example, I would like to research the profits athletes bring into the university alone, which could potentially cause others to think that student athletes should receive compensation because they are responsible for the majority of it. In addition, I would like to add how many student athletes are from low income households. Through my research, I hope to gain a deeper understanding to why some people feel student athletes should not be paid.

In order to provide strong support for my paper, I have found several credible sources to use. Some of my sources include the following: “The NCAA in Its Second Century: Defender of Amateurism or Antitrust Recidivist” by Daniel E. Lazaroff, “Forward Progress? An Analysis of Whether Student-Athletes Should Be Paid” by Christopher M. Parent, and “Sports and Antitrust: Should College Students Be Paid to Play?” by Lee Goldman. Each of these texts discuss how the NCAA finds every way possible to prevent student athletes from receiving any type of compensation, and why athletes deserve to be paid.

There could be several counterarguments presented against my thesis. For example, opponents could claim that student athletes are already compensated because they are receiving a “free” education. However, I would rebut by asking the difference between a regular college student on scholarship and a student athlete on scholarship. By providing examples, expert testimony, and statistics, many people could possibly rethink whether an education is even enough to compensate an athlete.               

Deciding whether student athletes deserve compensation remains a controversial issue. However with this paper, I hope to inspire others to think deeper into the hidden aspects associated with being a student athlete. We tend to only see the glamorous side of collegiate athletics; therefore, along with extensive research, I would like to firmly argue that student athletes should be compensated. In my paper, I hope to explore where schools would be without our student athletes.

Achievement of Desire

“Achievement of Desire,” an essay written by Richard Rodriguez, recalls his academic career route. Rodriguez was raised by two Mexican immigrants, causing him to grow up in a household with scarce resources. Being raised in America, unlike his parents, allowed Rodriguez to succeed, yet he was slowly rejecting his Latino culture.

Rodriguez uses repetition of the “scholarship boy” throughout his essay, which he defines as himself. According to the piece, the “scholarship boy” represents an individual with limited opportunities, parents who are primarily uneducated, and someone who has the potential to succeed academically. Rodriguez would spend hours reading, which caused him to slowly detach from his family and culture. He even admits to locking himself in his room to read, and sneaking out of the house whenever relatives visited. Rodriguez suggests that his own family and culture was not good enough; therefore, he would try to imitate his teachers because he thought that was the only way to be successful.

In my own life, I was unable to experience how Rodriguez probably felt. As we discussed in class, my parents are the typical geniuses. My mother attended college, has Doctorate degrees in Business and Education, and considers everything to be too simple. My father, whom I consider to be the “scholarship boy,” attended college with an athletic scholarship, and remained on the academic honor roll. He eventually played professional football, while also being enrolled in med school. Now, he is a doctor, which most professional athletes are unable to achieve after retirement. At many times, I feel inferior to them because everything comes easy to them. Rodriguez says that when he was leaving for college, his parents encouraged him to stay local. However, my parents expected me to move away from home to further my academic career, meaning I did not have a choice.

                The greatest lesson to be learned through Rodriguez’s essay relates back to his family. Rodriguez admitted to feel ashamed of his parents because they were not like his teachers, yet he failed to appreciate their own native intelligence. Therefore, he tended to neglect his parents because of his strong desire to learn. Once he finishes his education, he realizes that he did so at the expense of his family, which forces him to rethink what he really achieved.

"The Pain Scale"

Eula Biss, a contemporary non-fiction writer, presents the audience with “The Pain Scale,” a piece written to provoke the reader’s definition of pain. The pain scale was created in the 1970’s as an attempt to improve patient care. Those in need were asked to rate their pain on a scale of zero to ten, where zero represents no pain, and ten being the worst pain imaginable. However, we must ask ourselves, what is pain?

 Is there an overall definition of pain? What I feel as pain, another person can feel the complete opposite.   For example, in the piece, Biss argues that a person can define death from starvation as relief, rather than dying a slow painful. After reading “The Pain Scale” several times, I agree with Biss that pain is subjective. There is no way to have a scale that measures pain because we all have different tolerances. If a child fell and scraped my knee, I would consider my injury to be a mild pain. I agree that, like Biss states, pain is one of the things that can only be measured through symbolic language.

But really, what is pain? I consider pain to merely be a sensation. Whenever I am in pain, I find something intriguing to do, which makes me forget that I am supposed to be hurting. Based on experience, many people do not realize that Icy Hot, Biofreeze, and other “pain relieving” gels cause feelings of hot and cold in quick intervals, which make us temporarily forget about the “pain” we were in before.

Throughout the entire piece, Biss forces us to rethink our definition of pain. In some ways, I agree that the pain scale is unnecessary because we are trying to measure our pain in a rational manner, but is it really accurate? On the other hand, I support those in the medical field that try to relate to the patient as much as possible. Then again, are the employees who work with the patients trying to make themselves feel better emotionally because they can potentially have to inflict more pain, in an attempt to improve the patient?

                I know I sound fickle; however, I believe that Biss’ piece was not meant to confuse us, but rather to have us think. The tone throughout the entire passage is solely thought-provoking. For example, the author states many things such as, the chicken’s pain was “zeroed,” but what is zero? She continues with zero being a number, as Christ was to a man. Although she makes many valuable arguments, I was very interested with the argument that all of our pain is different. Yet, we must notice how Biss tends to volley between support and opposition of the pain scale, which I believe causes us to dig deeper. Therefore, in my opinion, at the end of the day, pain will probably be one of the things we will never understand fully.

"Why Bother?" Summary

Making conscious efforts to save the environment and prevent climate change have been some of the most prevalent issues for years. In “Why Bother,” an article written by Michael Pollan about climate change, questions several arguments on why we should do our part in going green. Pollan’s decision to become more aware and do his part in green living was inspired by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. In the article, Pollan discusses that many people are aware of the rapid environmental changes, but feel that it is too late to take action. He stresses that if we are waiting “for legislation or technology to solve the problem of how we’re living our lives suggests that we’re not really serious about changing” because our politicians are not going to take the initiative to begin the process (90). He also adds that there are many ways we can contribute to environmental preservation in ways such as, growing our own crops, reducing our meat intake, or “abstain completely from economic activity: no shopping, no driving, no electronics (91). As Pollan says, if one of us bothers, other people will begin to bother too because of example.

Although Pollan argues that we should all do our part in preserving the environment, he acknowledges the difficulties in green living.  “According to one analysis, if walking to work increases your appetite and you consume more meat or milk as a result, walking might actually emit more carbon than driving” (89). Pollan adds several other analyses that question whether our attempts positively affect the environment, which he argues can cause conflict in a person’s desire to continue being conservation. Also, Pollan argues that many people are discouraged from going green because “there lives my evil twin” who is doing the complete opposite (89). Therefore, since others are not living green, an individual may be unable to see his or her progress.
                                               

Works Cited

Pollan, Michael. “Why Bother?” New York Times Magazine 20 Apr 2008:

            19+. Rpt. in The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing. John D.

            Ramage, John C. Bean, and June Johnson. 6^th ed. New York:

            Pearson, 2012. 88-94. Print.

Research Topics

Choosing a research topic has been pretty difficult for me. I'm not sure if I should choose something completely new to me, or something I know well. However, one topic that stuck out to me was whether student athletes should get paid. As a student-athlete here, I tend to notice many views on compensation for athletes. As of right now, this is the only topic that I can see myself going far with, but I am still currently looking for other possible topics!