COLUMN: A higher standard comes with the jersey
All Central Michigan University students are not equal.
Jane and John in your physics class share something with CMU point guard Chris Fowler or the electrifying running back, Zurlon Tipton. Within the walls of this university, we are the same as Olympian women’s basketball player Crystal Bradford or 133-pound senior wrestler Joe Roth.
However, a key distinction has to be made.
While we are all students of this university and collectively represent the CMU Chippewas brand ourselves, that brand we share is an unequal burden carried by the athletes at our university. Should we all be held to the same standards of conduct? Not a chance.
Those who wear the maroon and gold under the spotlight stay in its gaze long after the lights are turned off in the stadium. The precedent is different for athletes. Their degree of campus fame extends their responsibility to act as a positive representation of the campus community more so than Jane or John in your physics class.
This campus fame is deserved by their tireless efforts, but through these efforts they also earned the expectation to be held to a higher standard. Athletes are not just students, they are a representation of all of us.
If you play a sport here, we don’t cut you any slack. You claim special privilege and live your life under the microscope.
Sadly, however, it appears there is a growing trend with CMU Athletics. An expanding number of highly-skilled athletes are lacking the recognition of their duties, or at the very least, basic judgment.
With drunken driving, credit card fraud and domestic violence topping the list of athletic misconduct, the spotted history of some of our athletes runs deep. These people, honored by the ability to play Division I athletics, should be more in-check of their behavior than anyone else.
Athletes are an extension of the campus community and are meant to embody the highest degree of what students should strive for – not a celebrity appearance on the Central Michigan Life crime log.
But it's important to note that this is not representative of all athletes. We are proud to be home to many great people, specifically in the athletic department, that are doing great things everyday. However, the reputation of a few can spread to the group.
If there is anything to be learned, it's that even amongst themselves, the lowest among them can reflect on the whole.
