Pulling Up the Welcome Mat?
September 8, 2011
Michigan’s welcoming foreign exchange program network and the MHSAA’s accommodating rules have caused there to be more placements in Michigan schools than any other state during each of the last two school years. But this open environment for foreign exchange students may change if the MHSAA is unsuccessful in defending its current rules through judicial proceedings in Michigan courts.
Presently under MHSAA rules, international transfer students are treated identically to domestic transfer students: unless the student meets one of 15 stated exceptions, that student is ineligible for approximately one semester and then becomes eligible insofar as the transfer regulation is concerned until that student’s high school graduation.
If, however, this student is a foreign exchange student placed in an MHSAA member school through a program listed by the Council on Standards for International Educational Travel, that student is permitted immediate eligibility and that student’s eligibility is limited to one academic year. This special exception for bona fide foreign exchange students is intended to maximize the benefits of their academic exchange year.
The current court challenge is to the absolute limit of one year of athletic eligibility for foreign exchange students. If the MHSAA is unsuccessful in preserving that one-year limit, schools may be forced to treat foreign exchange students as all other international transfer students who are ineligible for their first semester and thereafter eligible until graduation.
That solution may seem simple, but it would reduce the value of the academic exchange experience for bona fide foreign exchange students, and that would certainly drop Michigan from the top spot in the nation for foreign exchange student placements.
Glue and Grace
October 9, 2012
Recent events, obvious to you, caused me to return to an article the MHSAA published in August of 1999. Here it is again:
Three days after the tragedy at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, a retired athletic administrator whom I respect greatly and listened to intently, called me to say this:
“You have an opportunity to speak to student-athletes in this state and across the country. Talk to them about Littleton.”
This administrator wanted me to convey to athletes that they were not a part of the many and complex causes of the Columbine carnage, but they play a small part of the solution to help assure such craziness doesn’t occur closer to home.
The administrator was referencing some of the media reports that suggested the youthful killers took offense to the “jocks.” Valid or not, these suggestions provide another wake-up call for those who claim that school-sponsored sports are healthy for the participants, school and community.
As a result, part of my conversations with student-athletes this year and the heart of my message to team captains in 1999-00, will be this:
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Break down the walls, real or perceived, between the athletes of your schools and other students. Avoid cliques limited to team members or even athletes in general.
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When you walk the school halls and shopping malls, greet fellow students warmly, regardless of their involvement in school sports or other activities. Let them know that you know they exist.
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Become more sensitive to the needs of others, especially those who are different than you. Appreciate that while you may be more gifted in some things, other students are more gifted in other things. Show a genuine interest in those things.
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Understand that you are not the center of the universe. Accept that it is your role to serve others, and not the other way around.
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Don’t condescend, but concentrate on the rich worth of other people. Seek them out. Involve them. Enter into their worlds and invite them into yours until such time as it is difficult to recognize different worlds in your school and community.
I believe this goal for the interscholastic athletic program, embraced by every administrator, participant and parent, would help us: That every participant be involved in academic and non-academic matters, athletic and non-athletic activities, be a star in one thing and a substitute in another, be on stage and backstage, in solo and ensemble, experiencing both winning and losing.
A student involved in such an experience as this could not help but provide glue and grace to a student body.
No student-athlete anywhere is remotely responsible for the massacre in Littleton, Colorado. But student-athletes everywhere have an opportunity to be a small part of an environment that assures such a tragedy is not repeated where they live, study and play. Talk to them.