University of Oklahoma Sooner Housing Center: Maintaining Athletes' Focus

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Recommended: The effect of becoming a student athlete on academics

Not all colleges’ focus on ensuring that their athletes succeed both their respective sport and in their education. The University of Oklahoma (referred to as “OU”) demonstrates its commitment to success in the classroom and on the field, by providing students with the Sooner Housing Center. The Sooner Housing Center provides a family-like environment, which ensures OU athletes maintain a strong balance between academics and athletics by emphasizing the athlete’s educational achievements in addition to their sports accomplishments. Living in a focused community guides athletes in the right direction since performativity plays a large role in their lives.

The OU Sooner Housing Center (SHC) is comprised of three housing facilities (The Jefferson House, The Jones House, and the Bud Wilkinson House) and a dining hall (The Wagner Dining Hall) which creates a family-like environment solely for residents. The Jefferson House houses all female residents, while the Jones House and Bud Wilkinson (referred to as “the Bud”) houses all males. The Wagner dining hall provides meals services only for students, faculty, and staff living in the three Sooner Housing Center. The first floor of the Bud is the “community center” which provides computers, a television, sitting areas, Ping-Pong and pool tables, a laundry room, and a main office. In the past, the Bud served only as athletic housing, but by 1996, the houses were converted to shared housing for both athlete (49%) and non-athlete (51%) “The change from all athletic housing to shared on-campus housing was originally mandated by the NCAA rules. As a result, the OU Athletics Department decided to take a creative approach and provide quality housing for all students” (Sooner Sports NP).

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...n conclusion, the University of Oklahoma successfully demonstrates its commitment to success in the classroom and on the field by providing the SHC, which ensures a family atmosphere for community members. This community is kept strong by assuring its members are provided with the tools, resources, and “home-like” atmosphere necessary to excel both academically and athletically. My observations of this community are that structure, fun, and educational support tools helps guides athletes in the right direction since performativity plays a large role in their lives.

Works Cited

"Sooner Housing Center." Sooner Sports. The University of Oklahoma Athletics, 2011. Web. 17

Oct. 2011. .

“Tools of Inquiry and discourses, “ by James Paul Gee, reprinted from An Introduction to

Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method, Second Edition (2005)

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