LOVE IT OR LEEVE IT: Student-Athletes:Who Needs 'em?

You know what?

I’m sick of hearing debate over student-athletes and what they mean to our community. Please. Let’s pay some attention to the majority of us, who go unappreciated—the student-non-athletes.

True, we don’t have to wake up before the sun comes up to practice and lift, and most of us don’t punish our bodies with two-a-days under any circumstances. But let me tell you, battling other undergrads for an elliptical machine at the MAC ain’t easy either. And after I’m done with my grueling 30-minute workout, I do crunches!

Yeah, yeah, we non-athletes don’t have to travel to away games or matches that take up the entire weekend or suffer late-night bus rides back to school with class the next morning or balance intercollegiate competition with international competition on top of a thesis. Not that it matters—no athlete can actually take education seriously.

We don’t represent our school in sports, one of the most recognizable ways to show pride and spirit. But I have spirit! I went to Harvard-Yale and tailgated like no other!

Did I go inside?

Right, like I’d go watch The Game when there’s free beer outside the stadium.

True, I have a lot more free time to do various activities, which in total might or might not add up to the amount of time athletes spend training and competing and doing other extracurriculars. And yes, teammates form bonds and share interests and activities much like any other extraordinarily tight-knit group of people.

But come on, who are we kidding here? Athletes don’t deserve to get into our illustrious institution in the first place!

Granted, there are non-athletes who squeeze past the admissions committee with talents as obscure and useless as flower arranging or bird watching, and those freaks can definitely drag down the mean (to the benefit of others). And I suppose there are those athletes who do possess a brain, maybe even of the Phi Beta Kappa caliber.

Seriously, though, what is the big deal with having a diverse college community that enriches our lives both in and out of the classroom? I don’t care! I just care about what I like, so don’t try to introduce me to new things or different kinds of people when I’m perfectly happy with my life.

It doesn’t matter to me if there are diehard sports fans who aren’t just the families and significant others of the athletes—they can go to another university, which unites behind their sports teams as much as their a capella groups.

And I’m tired of those athletes that just sit there silent in section with no sign of brain activity. True, I want to cause bodily harm to the section champions who chip in their two cents every two minutes. And yeah, I guess there are non-athletes who don’t talk and a few athletes who do.

But really, what are they going to contribute to society once they get their undeserved Harvard degree? Yeah, some are pre-med or pre-law, and others are doing consulting or teaching. I guess there have been a few good enough to go on to play professional baseball, football, or soccer.

Still, it’s infuriating that I’m going to walk in June with athletes mixed in with us non-athletes, as if we all shared the same environment for the last four years and contributed in different ways to campus life. I for one actually deserve my admission and getting my degree—I’m a legacy, of course.

—Staff writer Brenda E. Lee can be reached at belee@fas.harvard.edu. Her column appears on alternate Wednesdays.