One of the primary reasons why athletics departments benefit from having a faculty athletics representative is to have someone who can assist in breaking down the "jock" stereotype adhered to by some professors.

But no matter how much an athletics department and its faculty rep want to see their athletes succeed academically, and no matter how many battles the faculty rep fights on the athletes' behalf when warranted, many of the negative stereotypes persist because of the actions of some student-athletes.

Student-athletes do the biggest disservice to their fellow athletes and athletics departments every time they skip a class, fall asleep in class, or cheat on homework or exams because these sins lead to discrimination against all student-athletes. That is, it creates an environment where professors with a preconceived notion of the behavior and actions of the "average" student-athlete will apply this perception to all student-athletes, even though many of our athletes excel in the classroom.

Student-athletes, athletics departments and faculty reps can actively change this perception, and it all starts with this general premise: Professors ask nothing more from student-athletes than what their coaches expect from them -- effort, honesty, punctuality, maturity and responsibility.

To student-athletes, I ask these questions: Are you coming to class? Are you listening and alert in class? Are you making a contribution in terms of classroom participation? If you are going to miss a class, are you giving appropriate notice and are you taking the responsibility to make-up missed work?

If athletics departments are serious about attacking the "jock" stereotype, it must be conveyed to student-athletes that a large part of this burden falls on their shoulders.

To this end, I propose that a modus operandi of "reasonable diligence" be pursued by student-athletes and athletics departments. This means that student-athletes must take the initiative to denote where potential conflicts might exist between their academic and athletics schedules. They must alert affected professors of potential conflicts well in advance of the conflict.

Two weeks' notification would be a minimal standard, but many athletes (if motivated) could follow reasonable diligence as early as the beginning of each semester because they should know whether there will be conflicts among class, tests, practice and competition schedules before the semester.

Athletics departments must share the responsibility of reasonable diligence with their student-athletes. They must do this by providing guidance to their athletes in an effort to minimize conflicts with academics. Whether it is a specialized academic advisor to the athletics department, additional effort exhausted by coaches or the provision of a forum to the school's faculty rep to educate student-athletes, athletics departments can certainly do their fair share to ensure that the potential for conflict is alleviated.

There will still be a fraction of professors unwilling to work with student-athletes and athletics departments that practice reasonable diligence. To my colleagues who take that stance, I say that you should practice "reasonable accommodation" if a student-athlete displays reasonable diligence in alerting you of a conflict.

To athletics departments, I say that you must educate your student-athletes of the merits of reasonable diligence. Most professors will respect an individual who is making an effort to not allow their athletics commitments to affect their academic progress. The more respect the student-athletes have from their professors, the more likely the professor will accommodate their request.

To my fellow faculty reps, I say that you must be assertive in assuring that your athletics departments are providing you a forum to speak to your student-athletes as a group (either in person or by e-mail). This is a must in order to educate them about the short- and long-term consequences of practicing reasonable diligence.

The short-term consequences are that fewer conflicts between academics and athletics will arise, which means fewer headaches for professors, student-athletes, coaches and athletics directors alike. The long-term consequences will be to slowly change existing stereotypes in a fashion advantageous to both the student-athlete and athletics in general.

Patrick James Rishe is the faculty athletics representative at Webster University.