Jan 12, 2010 11:26:12 PM

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will address NCAA Convention delegates during the opening business session on Thursday in Atlanta.  

Duncan, who was in charge of the Chicago Public School system for more than seven years before being tapped last January by President Barack Obama for the cabinet post, was a first-team Academic All-American and standout basketball student-athlete at Harvard.  His father, a longtime professor at Chicago, served as the faculty athletics representative at the school for more than a quarter of a century.

In an exclusive interview with The NCAA News, Duncan talked about how his experiences as a student-athlete helped shape his life after college, about how intercollegiate athletics relates to higher education, and about the current economy's effect on college sports.

NCAA News: Talk about the economy's effect on higher education and how that – along with Title IX – affects how institutions make sport-sponsorship decisions.

Arne Duncan: Obviously it's a tough time out there for everybody – families, colleges and universities, schools of education, school districts. Hopefully the economy will bounce back, but as you know, many universities' endowments have been hit hard, and when times are tough, it forces you to think through your priorities.

When cutbacks are inevitable, you have to be smart and strategic about your priorities. All of these decisions are painful, but what are the least painful areas to hit?  Obviously, I would hope things like academic support for student-athletes and summer school aren't first on the chopping block.

As for the second part of your question – the idea of more sponsorships and things like that – universities being entrepreneurial and bringing in from the corporate or philanthropic sector is obviously very, very smart, and where those outside dollars can offset some of those reductions potentially in state funding and other areas, that's very helpful.

So, while these are challenging times, they frankly are tests of leadership. Sometimes folks sort of get paralyzed with the difficulties involved here, and sometimes they use it to bring real clarity to their strategic vision for what's important. This is a time where an entrepreneurial spirit and sense of innovation – bringing in these outside resources – could obviously be helpful as well. I would hope that folks are being very thoughtful as they make these tough decisions.

NCAA News: What do you think about the late NCAA President Myles Brand's primary objective of integrating athletics within higher education, and what are the challenges to achieving that objective?

Duncan: It's hugely important. Myles Brand was an important leader and moved the NCAA forward in significant ways. It's a tremendous legacy but also a tremendous loss and huge shoes to fill.

The idea of student-athletes being fully integrated into institutions – into their colleges and universities – has to be the core, the heart, of all of this. Every time a university or an athletics program gets in trouble, it's because they lose that perspective. It's because that balance gets out of whack. That balance is the crux of doing things the right way. I can't overstate the importance, or more strongly support the position he took.

Students who are truly student-athletes have a chance for a life-transforming, life-shaping experience. I can tell you how thankful I am for having had that experience and how it's shaped me in countless ways. It's an absolutely formative experience.

I do worry in those places where that balance gets out of whack and folks tend to forget the student part of it. The adults tend to forget that. When that happens, it very poorly serves the students and stains the entire system. I think 99 percent of the problems the NCAA faces is when that balance gets weighted the wrong way. It's got to be – it always should be – student first, athlete second. When that flips, that's when the consequences can be devastating for the student, for the institution and for intercollegiate athletics in general.

NCAA News: The Department of Education has been actively seeking ways to increase student access to college. What role does intercollegiate athletics play in helping the administration create more access to higher education?

Duncan: The chance to be a student-athlete is such a life-transforming opportunity. When those values are kept in balance, and when the goal is to have a rich athletics and academic experience – and the goal is not to go pro – those opportunities are huge. As I'm sure you well know, student-athletes perform better academically than non-student-athletes. The myth of the dumb jock is just a myth. Athletes tend to have higher GPAs and they tend to graduate at higher rates.

As you know, President Obama has drawn a line in the sand. He said by 2020, we have to again lead the world in the percentage of college graduates. We used to lead the world 20 years ago, and frankly, we've lost our way. Other countries have passed us by and we're paying for that economically. I'm convinced we have to educate our way to a better economy.

I really do see great extracurricular activities – you and I are talking sports, but it could be orchestra or plays or musicals, but strong extracurricular activities, with sport being central to that – as phenomenal levers for driving up graduation rates. To me, it's a means to an end to help students graduate and fulfill academic potential. And obviously, their long-term prospects in life are exponentially higher if they have that college degree under their belt.

NCAA News: How have your own athletics experiences shaped your life?

Duncan: I've been fortunate all my life to have good coaches, good mentors and good teammates. There are so many life lessons you learn through sports that are difficult to learn in the classroom. For me, it happened to be basketball, but it could be any sport. The values of teamwork, hard work, unselfishness and discipline – and all these life values that are critically important and that have literally shaped me from the time I was a little boy. I feel fortunate to have had those kinds of opportunities.

I could never be doing what I'm doing today were it not for the extraordinary good fortune of being a student-athlete. I will always be thankful for that experience.

NCAA News: What advice would you pass along to current and aspiring student-athletes?

Duncan: It goes back to where we started. This is all about graduation. It's all about preparing academically for that next stage in your life. I was someone who loved to play basketball and still do. But I was fortunate to have the good coaches and role models and parents to make sure my priorities were always in order and that the goal was always to get a great education first. Sometimes student-athletes think these things are mutually exclusive – that you can either be a great athlete or a great student.

My advice would be to push for absolute excellence in both of those, but to always keep your priorities straight. We as a society have not done a great job of articulating to young people how critically important the academic side is. The hopes and dreams of too many young children have been based upon the wildly unrealistic goal of becoming a professional athlete. The goal should be to go to college, to figure out what you love, study that and graduate. Whatever happens after that athletically will just be icing on the cake.

I would also encourage student-athletes to carefully consider the graduation rates of not just the institutions but the teams they are considering. Some athletics programs do a phenomenal job of building a culture of college completion, while others seem less interested in that. That worries me. I encourage student-athletes to look at those places where the coaches and administrators are not just worried about getting them in the door and getting them on the playing field but about seeing them wearing that cap and gown four years down the road.