Collective Muscle: How Partnerships between Faculty Members and Athletic Coaches Can Serve Our Academic Missions

The academic and athletic missions of colleges and universities are often portrayed in opposition. One illustration of this tension is the recent "Varsity Blues" admissions scandal, in which illicit athletic recruiting subverted equitable admissions processes. Other less newsworthy examples of tensions around collegiate athletics include student-athletes' need to miss classes or exams for games, as well as some faculty perceptions about athletic "cliques" in majors or courses (when members of the same team, for instance, sit together in a class). Are the athletic and academic missions of colleges and universities really so antithetical? This article explores that question by describing a faculty-athletic coach learning community at Brown University that recognizes the complementary role that many athletic coaches and faculty members play. Through their work with the learning community, the authors have uncovered more similarities than differences in teaching and coaching contexts. Although athletics is often thought of as an extracurricular activity, the observations and discussions among the members of this community often suggest that, like faculty members, coaches are often engaged in teaching key liberal arts competencies such as problem solving, writing, persuasive communication, and critical thinking.