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NCAA Rules Scholarship Students May Work

© Chuck Bednar

As a result of a recent NCAA ruling, college athletes attending school on full scholarships may now earn up to $2000 by working during the school year.

"We said we were going to do it, and we're doing it," Kenneth Shaw, chairman of the NCAA Board of Regents, said. "It's a good first step. ... We should consider this work in progress."

The bill, passed originally last year under the name Proposition 62, also permits athletic department officials and boosters to help athletes find work. However, it prohibits athletes from working within the athletic department. Athletes could work in other areas of a university, such as intramurals, except for freshmen, who will be totally prohibited from working.

Support for the proposal is far from unanimous, however. Several university coaches and administrators fear abuses and recruiting advantages. Tom Asbury, the basketball coach at Kansas State, has even been quoted as saying it will "be a disaster." Supporters, however, argue that athletes are just being allowed to do what regular students can do.

"It's only going to be a disaster if coaches and athletic directors make it a disaster," Bridget Niland, chair of the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, told reporters. "You are not going to see every student-athlete going out and looking for a job. My hope is this won't be the issue people are trying to make it out to be."

Originally proposed in 1995, Proposition 62 was withdrawn at that convention and was defeated a year later. It passed in January of 1997, but pressure from football and basketball powers over possible inequities in the amounts athletes would be allowed to earn forced the NCAA to table the issue for an entire year. Students on partial scholarships have always been allowed to hold jobs.

The original rule allowed athletes to earn up to the cost of attendance at a particular school, factoring in cost of living and other expenses that could have made the figure larger at certain schools. After the revision, however, the most significant change in this legislation is the limit of $2,000.

Was there any chance the proposal could have failed?

"I think everybody would have been really surprised," said Janet Justus, who serves as the Director of Education Outreach and liaison with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, a driving force in the legislation, "It's been so discussed, maybe more discussed than any legislation in NCAA history."

Athletes on full scholarship had previously been prohibited from working during the season mainly because of time

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