CUC credit limit proposal insults non-athletes

By Taylor Armstrong     4/13/16 8:29pm

The CUC has proposed a further limit to semester credit hours. In an email I received, “the motivation for developing a proposal for additional limits to semester credit hours comes from the Dean of Undergraduates reporting a norm among students of enrolling in a larger number of courses than is compatible with overall academic success and personal well-being.” 17 hours will be the limit for new students with the exceptional increase of 18 credit hours for those lucky returning students. If you’re a Musi or Archi, you’ll keep your 20-hour limit due to “unique curricula.” Petitions over 21 hours will not be accepted.

I’m a graduating senior who has spent four years as a Division I athlete, and despite spending over 30 hours a week working out, I will graduate in four years, have taken 120 hours and remained active in my residential college/general Rice life. I could achieve this only by taking no fewer than 15 hours every semester and often going up to 17-20 hours. This proposal issued by the CUC insults nonathlete students.

Every single person at this university earned their way here and has proven emotional maturity and ability to make intelligent decisions without the "help" of an overbearing micromanager. Are you seriously telling me regular students can’t handle taking six to seven classes a semester, but athletes are perfectly capable of taking five classes and working out for six-plus hours a day on top of everything else? Let that sink in.

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Sure, there are many arguments you can make about the 17-hour credit limit and I hope you do, but from the viewpoint of an athlete who also in a way has “unique curricula,” I ask the SA and Dean Hutch to stop blatantly disrespecting our incredibly established, astute students. If you want to "improve the overall academic success and personal well-being” of students, how about you start with something 488 Rice student-athletes have been asking for years: Remove the mandatory LPAP.

Taylor Armstrong, Martel College ‘16

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