Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in a series of articles addressing the resolution proposing to phase out the appropriated funding the intercollegiate athletics department receives.

Lakeisha Allen lives a life behind the scenes inside the athletic world as a member of the Eastern cheerleading team.

A world where the sophomore management information systems major said allows her to see things that the average Eastern student would not see like the privileges given to athletes.

“I can see how big of an emphasis there is to win a game versus academics,” Allen said. “I mean it’s not right, but it’s there.”

Katie Krofeo disagreed.

Krofeo, a senior biology major, said she thinks academics takes precedence over athletics on campus.

“I haven’t really heard much about athletics,” she said. “People who are more involved probably hear more about it, but I don’t really pay attention to it as much.”

Krofeo said she does not think athletes get any preferential treatment besides the excused absences any student would get while participating in a university-sanctioned event.

Allen said the preferential treatment is particularly easy to see during recruitment season.

“When they recruit, they focus on the athletics and not really the education,” Allen said.

That does not mean that athletes do not take their own academic futures seriously, Allen said.

“A lot of our athletes are scholars and we might play hard, but we work just as hard,” Allen said.

Morgan Wade, a junior family and consumer sciences major, agreed with Krofeo and said she does not feel like Eastern is a big athletic university nor does it have a budget that would allow it to act as such.

“I don’t feel like our school is that revolved around sports,” Wade said.

Wade also said she thinks athletes should be commended for balancing being a student and an athlete.

“I think (athletics) gives them an incentive to do better with their grades and allows them to get a better education,” Wade said.

Student Body President Ed Hotwagner, a senior mathematics major, is also the head of Panther Nation, Eastern’s student-run athletic cheering group.

Hotwagner said he thinks academics is and will continue to be the main concern for Eastern.

“(Education) is what we came here for,” Hotwagner said. “While it’s great that we have athletics, everyone came here to get a degree.”

Hotwagner also said he is able is see the work that student-athletics have to do while having a dual life.

“Eastern has small enough class sizes that almost everyone has an athlete in their class and it’s not like ‘you’re an athlete you don’t have to try’ they don’t get to miss anything,” Hotwagner said.

Samantha Neumer, a freshman elementary education major, said she thinks academics carries more weight at Eastern.

“Obviously, we are here for school and even athletes still have to worry about their grades to play,” Neumer said.

Tracy Baker said she thinks the biggest determiner of importance at a university is the monetary value put on programs as well as average department salaries.

Baker, a sophomore family and consumer sciences major, said while academics should be the focus at an institute such as Eastern and other universities like it, it usually becomes an afterthought when it comes to athletics.

“They put tons of money into Lantz and sports teams and that money could go to other things,” Baker said.

Neumer said she does think people could get the misconceptions of athletics being a priority over education based on salary differences between the average Eastern professors versus athletic coach salaries.

“As an education major, I think teachers are underpaid and deserve to be paid a lot more,” Neumer said.

This was a similar argument that was brought by philosophy professor Grant Sterling and officially debated upon at the April 3 Faculty Senate meeting.

In regards to the recent debate about the funding of the athletic department, Sterling proposed a slow phasing out of athletic appropriated funding on the university’s part. This would leave it up to the athletic department to come up with the funds.

However, Baker said she thinks her student fees are doing what they were intended for.

“I could really care less where they spend their money as long as it has to do with the school,” Baker said.

Laura Brooks, a freshman sociology major, said she sees an emphasis put on academics.

Devin Vail agreed.

Vail, a freshman psychology major, said while sports are an aspect of the collegiate experiences, it should not be the most important one.

“We are all here for an education and getting a college degree is more likely to help us in the future,” Vail said.

Nike Ogunbodede can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].