Maria is a sophomore history major who hopes to become a high-school teacher. Not only is she the president of the college history club, she helped create it. She also volunteers once a week at the local children's hospital, has a work-study job at the campus bookstore and plays on her school's varsity softball team.

Eric is a senior biology major who plans to go to medical school after college. He is not a member of any of his college's more-than-30 clubs and organizations, but he made the conscious decision not to participate so that he could enjoy his independence and play golf on the varsity team.

Leah is a junior economics major and a member of the soccer team. She loves her sport and performs well academically, but she feels that she does not have time to participate in all of the activities that her non-athlete friends enjoy.

Student-athletes compose a diverse, multi-talented group of individuals who often are involved in a variety of activities and cultural experiences beyond college athletics. Some integrate into campus life gracefully, attending team practices, games, classes and activities without difficulty. Others choose not to integrate into the campus life, preferring to play their sport and obtain their degree without the additional extracurricular activities. And then there are those student-athletes, like Leah, who would like to participate more in the overall campus experience but find it too challenging. How prevalent is that group of student-athletes?

The concept of campus integration of the student-athlete is gaining momentum among the NCAA membership, but no one seems to have asked student-athletes about it. If we want to move forward on the issue, basing our arguments on comments from student-athletes over the past 20 years won't cut it. We need to speak openly with today's student-athletes. Is campus integration truly a problem that needs to be addressed at an Association-wide level, or is it simply an issue that needs to be tackled on a more personal level, student-athlete by student-athlete, on our campuses? We need to challenge one another to emphasize the importance of intercollegiate athletics in the personal and professional development of students. Then, we may begin our focus on educating one another on the issue of campus integration so that we can prevent it from becoming a real problem.

You might find that if you ask yourselves and individual student-athletes the following three questions, you will get as diverse a group of answers as there are student-athletes in the NCAA:

* Based on your own personal experiences and your observations of others on your campus, do you think student-athletes are integrated into campus life?

* Do you think student-athletes have difficulty integrating into the overall campus environment?

* Of those student-athletes who are not integrated into the campus experience, how many of them really want to become more involved?

Everything we do in life involves choices. We choose where we want to go to school, we choose our major, and we choose our extracurricular activities. If a student has to choose between playing basketball and joining the school newspaper, is it really all that bad for his or her personal development or to the campus community as a whole if he or she chooses basketball? In the quest for integration of the student-athlete, I think we often forget the importance of the learning experiences gained through intercollegiate athletics.

Being on a collegiate athletics team makes it more difficult to participate in other campus activities. Time-consuming practices, games, workouts and travel take away opportunities to do other things. But is that not true for any activity we choose? How often does a theater group participate in rehearsals? How many practice hours does the band put in outside of their scheduled classes? Athletics is just as important an ingredient to the campus cultural "recipe." Student-athletes gain a multitude of life skills and professional skills through their participation in sport, including leadership, problem-solving skills, self-discipline, teamwork and time-management. All of those skills can carry over to the academic and campus experience.

Intercollegiate athletics also embodies and promotes diversity and inclusion. A diverse group of students is brought together on an athletics team, which not only contributes to the cultural experience of the team, but contributes to the overall atmosphere of the college. Athletics is at the forefront of increasing cultural awareness and bringing people from different backgrounds together to share their experiences and life influences. Although student-athletes may not be able to attend a guest lecture on the Haitian culture, they may have the opportunity to live the experience through their Haitian teammate. Do we really want to discourage more involvement with teammates if it is encouraging such experiences?

Athletics and the intellectual aspects of college should not be seen as oppositional. Athletics is surely supplemental to academics. If college athletics is a distraction, preventing an athlete from getting the best possible education, that individual, along with the institution, needs to reconsider the mission and objectives.

For me to buy into the notion that student-athletes need to be more integrated into campus life, I want to see valid and reliable research that reflects student-athlete views. I have spoken to the student-athlete leaders at our Division III Regional Leadership Conferences who have said there is not a problem, indicating that student-athletes are integrated into campus life as they are often involved in student government, campus clubs and organizations. They are employed on campus and perform well academically compared to the general student body. It seems in fact that the prevalent belief is that they don't necessarily have difficulty integrating, but choose whether to be involved. Most will admit that it is a little more difficult to balance academics, athletics and other extracurricular activities, but that is what makes student-athletes unique. We have that ability to balance our time among the things we love to do, whether it be our sport, the theatre club on campus or our academic major.

What role can student-athletes, coaches, faculty and administrators play in promoting inclusion of student-athletes in the overall campus experience? The first objective is to identify those student-athletes who want to integrate more into campus life but have trouble doing so because of athletics demands. There is no need to try to force the rest of the student-athlete body to conform to standards of campus participation. Many student-athletes are content with their choices. Offer student-athletes the opportunities to participate in other activities, but allow for their own autonomy in decision-making.

Second, coaches need to be aware of the campus activities that are offered, and should especially be aware of the academic needs of each student-athlete. If there is something being offered on campus that would benefit his or her players, accommodations should be made. It could be as easy as changing practice time that day or letting a few of the student-athletes miss part of practice to attend a speaker series. If coaches lead the way by making that extra effort to be more involved in the campus experience themselves, it will be easier for student-athletes to follow suit. Coaches could even be involved in teaching courses or providing a lecture series to all students on the concepts of team-building, leadership, sports management and teamwork. The same could apply to athletics administrators such as faculty athletics representatives, senior woman administrators and CHAMPS/Life Skills coordinators.

Lastly, faculty members play a fundamental role in the integration of student-athletes. Encourage faculty to be more involved with students outside of class, just as coaches are involved with their athletes outside of practices and games. Faculty members should make that extra effort to show personal interest in each and every student in and out of the classroom. Educate the faculty on the benefits of intercollegiate athletics and promote faculty attendance at collegiate competitions. The more aware each constituent of an institution is of the others, the more complementary each will be to the others.

Athletics enhances the academic experience for the whole campus. We surely can engage one another to foster this vision of a more productive collegial environment. Student-athletes may integrate more readily into campus life if the athletics department is able to apply the same principles to how it functions, demonstrating an awareness of campus life so that athletes who want to participate have more of a choice.

When weighing the positives and negatives of the intercollegiate athletics experience, can the concept of campus integration of the student-athlete really be considered a problem? Student-athletes, coaches, faculty and athletics administrators all have an important responsibility to assist in increasing opportunities for student-athletes within and outside of athletics. Student-athletes want the opportunity to play their sport, the opportunity to obtain a quality education and the opportunity to enjoy campus life. If we can inspire a shared vision to promote student-athlete participation in all aspects of the collegiate experience, our student-athletes truly will become our future leaders. P CLASS=s2> Andrew Baldwin, a former tennis student-athlete at Nazareth College, chairs the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.