Monday, March 11, 2013

Athletes, specifically field athletes, support $16 million fields project

A recent study undertaken by two Kalamazoo College athletes sought to understand the relationships between various characteristics and opinions of the the new Kalamazoo College fields project. The study, consisting of 12 core-questions and distributed to 80 random students compared gender, class year, hours of exercise per week, hours of sports on TV per week, athletic contests attended in Fall '12 and whether or not the student was an athlete to what was called a 'positivity index'. This index was established to determine an overall opinion of the fields project.
The study indicates that it is quite clear that athletes have a more positive opinion of the field complex than non-athletes do; a result that is unlikely to shock many. Furthermore, the study indicates that the direct beneficiaries of the fields project, field athletes, are significantly more supportive of the decision to spend $16 million fields project than are athletes who's competitions are confined to Anderson Athletic Center.
Contrary to expectation, additional findings from the study indicate that there is little to no difference in opinions project between genders and class years. Additionally, there seems to be little relationship between how much a student exercises, watches sports on TV or attends K-College athletic events and overall opinion of the field project.
The overall impact of this study is yet to be determined. However, with many future plans for athletic renovations, the Kalamazoo College administration will need to continue catering to athletes while doing their best to get non-athletes engaged in the eventual renovations of the fitness center, natatorium and gymnasium.



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