"Volunteer Practices"

NCAA Rule 17.1.5.1 states �A student athlete�s participation in countable athletically related activities�shall be limited to a maximum of four hours per day and 20 hours per week.�   Senior administrators have admitted that SJSU football allows students to �volunteer� to practice once they have reached their 20-hour per week limit.  In reality, student athletes are aware that participation in such practices is not actually optional, and if they do not �volunteer�, they risk their status on the team.  This seems to be a violation of the spirit, if not the letter, of the NCAA rules, and the Senate does not believe that the university should be party to such behavior.  The NCAA rule was written to ensure that students did not spend all of their free time on the practice field, but rather devoted some of their time to their studies.  By promoting such �voluntary� practices, the football program sends a signal to its players that academics are not important.  In addition, this demonstrates a disregard for the health and well-being of their players.  In addition to the physical stress this places on students, if a student-athlete were to be injured in such a �voluntary� practice session, their university health insurance would not cover it.  This would expose students to a serious financial liability that properly belongs to the university. The Division of Athletics says that it must engage in this practice in order to remain competitive, because other schools do it.  We do not believe that "everyone is doing it" is a sufficient justification for an ethically bankrupt policy.