What’s Up With Athletes?
By: Dolores Christensen
SOU Volleyball Player
I am writing to express my disappointment with Jessika Shannon’s column “What’s Up With That?” in The Siskyou on November 16. She writes of the “shaft” students at SOU get for not receiving priority registration while the student-athletes of SOU do. She claims student-athletes usually pass with a “C average” once they get into those classes and questions “how many of them actually attend regularly?”
As a member of the SOU volleyball team I am insulted that she brands SOU’s athletes with degrading and misinformed stereotypes. Had Shannon actually done research into this area and used information from Institutional Research like I did, she would have found that the student-athletes of SOU actually have higher overall GPA, graduation rates and retention rates than the rest of campus. For fall 2002 full-time freshman students, the total 6-year graduation rate was 36.1 percent with non-athletes graduating at a rate of 35.2 percent. For student-athletes, the graduation rate in this same span of time was 44.2 percent. Similarly, the retention rate from fall 2008 to fall 2009 for full time freshmen was 67.6 percent while non-athletes were at 66.5 percent. Again, student-athletes had a much higher rate of retention at 82.2 percent. Amazingly, if an athlete completes his or her eligibility here at SOU, the graduation rate skyrockets to 95 percent. Lastly, seven out of the 12 athletic teams at SOU (volleyball, tennis, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s track, and men and women’s cross country) have a higher overall GPA than the rest of the undergraduate student body whose average is at a 3.08.
Additionally, athletes are only permitted to use early registration for the term in which they will be competing. That means sports like volleyball and football use priority registration only in the fall, while basketball and wrestling have it for fall and winter because their seasons cross those two terms. Furthermore, the student-athlete population is not the only group that enjoys early registration. The SOU Honors Program has also earned the privilege of priority registration but no one feels outraged over their use.
Every single group of students on the SOU campus can claim students who do not attend class regularly and who do not pull down A’s or B’s but the finger is always pointed first, and most vehemently, at athletics. Shannon claims she has “great respect for those of [us]” athletes who handle the time-constraints of practice and school. If only she had practiced good journalism she would have found that “those of us” athletes happen to be nearly all of us athletes.
The Plethora Continues
By: James Farmer
Ashland Resident
I enjoyed reading Alli Gilligan’s two-part series, “Five Places to Go On a Day Trip.” Mentioned was Yreka, the county seat of Siskiyou County in Northern California. Southwest of Yreka are the communities of Fort Jones and Etna in Scott Valley. These are remote rural farming, logging, and ranching communities, which like Yreka originated in the 1850’ during the California and Oregon gold rush. I subscribe to their rural weekly newspaper, The Pioneer Press, a Daniel Webster Publication, which represents the communities of Fort Jones, Etna, and Siskiyou County. Learn more about our neighbor to the south of Ashland via their website www.pioneerpresslive.com, which is updated every Tuesday.
The Lava Beds National Monument south of Tulelake is situated within Eastern Siskiyou County 35 miles southeast of Klamath Falls via Highway 39. This was the site of the Modoc Indian War of 1872-1873. For those interested in regional history and exploring caves and caverns the Lava Beds remains accessible. For more access www.nps.gov/labe.
Two counties east of Ashland, though certainly much farther away for a day trip, include both Klamath and Lake Counties. Klamath Falls itself has three museums of interest. These include the historic Baldwin Hotel at 31 Main Street, the Klamath County Museum, and the Favell Museum (privately owned and operated). Learn about these at www.co.klamath.or.us/museum and www.favellmuseum.org, respectively. South of Klamath Falls are the Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge and the Bear Valley National Wildlife Refuge just west of Worden along Highway 97. The latter hosts the largest number of wintering Bald Eagles in the lower 48 states.
Lake County (Lakeview) is a long trip east from Ashland, of course, but there is much to explore and check out in Lake County. Paisley, Ore. is 44 miles north of Lakeview and hosts the annual Paisley Mosquito Festival the last weekend of July. This event can be checked out via www.paisley.presys.com. 50 miles north of Paisley along Highway 31 is the small isolated rural community of Silver Lake in northern Lake County. Silver Lake was home to the worst fire in Oregon history in regards to human life on December 24, 1894. Forty-three residents perished in this horrible inferno. My commentary titled, “A Christmas Eve Tragedy,” ran in the Ashland Daily Tidings on Thursday, Dec. 24, 2009. The story and details of this historic, but horrid fire at Silver Lake can be accessed and read online at www.dailytidings.com. Simply click on “Opinion” or “Guest Opinion” to learn more.
Two museums in Lakeview, Ore. include both the Lake County Museum and Schminck Museum (privately owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution or DAR). The Lake County Examiner is the weekly newspaper for the cities of Lakeview and Paisley. Just like the previously mentioned The Pioneer Press, the Examiner has it’s own web page via www.lakecountyexam.com. Much of Lake County, Oregon is designated as “Oregon’s Outback.” Paisley itself has the largest cattle operation within the State of Oregon, the ZX Ranch. Also, a mile above the town of Paisley is the community swimming hole on the Chewaucan River, which is just the place to take the plunge in cool water during the sweltering hot summer months.
So there you have it. Remote rural regions and communities situated within driving distance from Ashland which get very little press locally.
