Research Blog #4 Research Proposal

Topic
Schools across the country are competing to gain students admissions in a privatized society every day.  Every aspect of the university is a something that can make or break a student’s decision to enroll in a university.  Students pick schools for different reasons and universities are finding that a strong athletic program can be their most visible asset to expanding their community.  The paper will attempt to link the current and past climate of athletics at universities with the stature of various universities across the country, and the impact their performance has had on the community, mainly academically and socially.

Research Question
        To what degree is athletics responsible for a university’s external appearance and what is the variable that allows a peaceful coexistence?  I think there are many competing views of an answer to this question and they lie deep within the culture of each school.  I think it will be exciting in such a time where schools are being mixed up geographically to bond together with what they see as institutions with similar visions.  I feel I may need to be a bit more precise but I would love to examine each school.  An idea I have to add in another variable is to examine the main points of the school’s athletic budgets with the research question.

Theoretical Frame
Research conducted by Haussler and Galagher (1987) showed that the college decision comes down to “three stages:  Predisposition where a (1) predisposition, where a student arrives at a tentative to continue his or her education; (2) search, where a student gathers information on the attributes and values that characterize alternatives among institutions: and (3) choice, where a student decides which institution to attend. We suggest that the significant success in intercollegiate athletics and the positive attention it produces has an influence on the search and choice stages, and to a lesser extent, may even influence predisposition in making certain students -- those who follow college sports -- aware of higher education from an early age" I believe that each stage is important and the predisposing stage quite possibly being the most if a university is able to entrench itself deeply into a community.
        Secondly, “College athletics are an activity, however, that scholars and administrators too commonly fail to address or view as distinct from other institutional functions and significant in their own right. Intercollegiate athletics are too often considered separate from core activities on campus, but they advance these causes, though in often nebulous ways” This has been evident that athletic departments exist on a continuum from positive to negative, and there effects can be ranging even on an individual basis.
Research Plan, Case Study or Additional Questions
It is interesting to see what factor geography plays in a schools ability to maximize growth.  I am going to look for research into failed academic programs and successful ones.  I’ll pay attention to studies aimed at effects on admissions to attempt to tie both of these aspects together.
What additional questions suggest themselves?
What is your research plan – what information or case studies are you going to look for?
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Working Bibliography