A Duty to Care

I have spent the entirety of my full-time professional life in public service. The majority of that has been in higher education administration. I currently work on the academic administration and policy side of things from a system level. But I’ve also spent time on college campuses, and working in student affairs and student services.

The one thing about that work, for me, is that a key element of things is making sure you take care of your students. They are the reason we are here. They are the reason that we exist.

Over the last couple of weeks, there are things that have happened that give me pause. Most of those events happened just this past Saturday.

Kent State and South Carolina shortened their game because of the extreme heat (and the fact that it was a blowout).

Colorado School of Mines and Washburn played to a draw because of…extreme heat.

And then, the more serious incident, where a University of Iowa band member was just taken off of life support due to a heat-induced cardiac incident.

That was all from this past weekend.

On top of that, there is an Arizona State hockey player who is on life support himself because of a “military-style” workout that the team went through, and the toll it took on his body. He is not expected to recover or ever be the same.

As climate change advances, and we continue to see scorching temperatures that extend farther into September, unsafe conditions will have to be a consideration in scheduling games.

I realize that the University of Southern California became the butt of jokes due to the paucity of attendance at their home opener at the end of August. But the conditions that day in Southern California (95 degree temperature, heat index of 105) definitely made it make sense to me why the game was sparsely attended. It was hot as hell and there is no shade in that bowl.

The players and band members and support staff don’t get that option, though. They have to show up.

The reason I think about the responsibility of the institutions in this case, though, is the duty to care. Even if one wants to handwring about the professionalization of college athletics, these are still ostensibly co-curricular endeavors. The students (and staff) are there representing the institution. There needs to be more attention paid to the real impact that the working conditions could have on the workforce.

Which is why moving the season back into early August feels like a recipe for madness. Playoff expansion requiring the season to start earlier, when conditions are typically worse, seems like an abdication of the duty to care. And sure, there are other tangible issues at play with expanding the season (physical wear and tear on players, for one), why add to the possible problems by making the season not just longer, but starting it out in increasingly dangerous conditions?

I realize the content monsters that are ESPN and Fox need to be fed, but using these folks as grist for the mill seems wrong. Is wrong. I don’t know if anything changes unless there is a major catastrophic situation that occurs during a prime window, all eyeballs on it game. But I don’t want that to happen. No one should want it to happen, in a sane world. With each passing day, though, I wonder if we really are still in a sane world or not.