Episode 64: Karen Weaver on Changes to College Athletics and Student Athlete Success
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What are the forces reshaping college athletics? How can institutions respond? How can they better support student athletes to enable their success? We discuss these questions and more with professor and podcast host Karen Weaver from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and the "Trustees and Presidents: A Podcast for University Leaders On College Athletics."
In the shifting world of higher education, few areas are undergoing as radical a transformation as college athletics. For decades, the "student-athlete" lived in a delicate balance between the classroom and the field, but today’s landscape—defined by legal battles, brand-building, and high-stakes mental health needs—requires a new playbook.
In a recent episode of the Connected College Podcast, host Elliot Felix sat down with Dr. Karen Weaver, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in college athletics. As one of the first women in America to receive an athletic scholarship under Title IX, Weaver brings a unique perspective on how institutions can move beyond "shiny objects" to create a truly supportive ecosystem for student success.
Identifying the True Pillars of Student Success
What does success look like for a modern student-athlete? It isn't just a high GPA or a winning season. According to Weaver, it is rooted in feeling supported. While athletic departments often have more built-in resources for academic tutoring and schedule management than the general student body, those resources are being stretched to their limits.
Institutions are now recognizing that the more they ask of these students, the more robust the support system must be. Success is measured by how well a student can navigate a "balancing act" that includes a full course load, intense practice schedules, and the high-profile pressure of representing their university.
Navigating the NIL and Transfer Portal Era
The conversation around college sports has been upended by two major shifts: Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal. These trends have fundamentally changed the value proposition of a degree.
NIL: Athletes now enter recruitment wondering not just about the curriculum, but about their market value. This shift has "upended the conversation" regarding the intrinsic value of an education, moving it toward a professionalized model.
The Transfer Portal: Much like any other employee or student, athletes now have the mobility to leave if they are unhappy. This "transient right" forces colleges to treat athletes more like partners or customers whose loyalty must be earned through a quality experience.
These changes are driving a movement toward viewing student-athletes as employees. From the unionization efforts seen at private institutions like Dartmouth to the level of control coaches exert over players’ lives (down to when they eat or sleep), the traditional amateur model is being challenged at its foundation.
Building a Holistic Support Ecosystem
When colleges think about "improving" athletics, they often point to new stadiums or locker rooms. However, Weaver argues that while facilities are important for recruitment, they aren't what drive retention and long-term success.
The real support happens in the "refueling stations" and the mental health offices. It’s about auditing policies to see if the cafeteria is actually open when a team returns from a late-night away game. It’s about recognizing that athletic trainers—the first line of defense—are often overwhelmed by being on-call 24/7 for everything from physical injuries to emotional crises.
To truly foster student success, higher education administrators must look at the student-athlete experience through an "ecosystem" lens. This means providing mental health resources that go beyond performance psychology to help students manage grief, stress, and identity loss. It means ensuring health care deductibles don't prevent a student from seeking emergency care.
Ultimately, a "connected college" is one that bridges the gap between the high expectations placed on athletes and the human resources provided to meet them.
Episode 64 Transcript
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Elliot Felix: That was Karen Weaver. Karen was one of the first women in America to get an athletic scholarship under Title IX, and now she's a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert in college athletics. Fun fact, Karen, when she was at Salisbury University, went on to become both USA Today's Coach of the Year and the university's faculty member of the year. I don't know how many people have done both, but it must be a short list. And we had a great conversation about all the things that are reshaping college athletics from the transfer portal to NIL and more.
Karen Weaver: We're talking about people who can help manage the stress that comes up, when they have to miss three weeks and feel disengaged from their team. They feel like they've lost their identity or a parent suddenly dies and meanwhile, they got to get full load of classes and they've got practice. So it's helping them manage through that really challenging period of time over the years, we've recognized that they need more support because the institution asks more of them. But still, it never feels like it's enough.
Elliot Felix: Welcome to the Connected College Podcast. I'm your host, Elliot Felix. I've helped more than a hundred colleges and universities change what they offer, how they operate, and how they're organized to enable student success. If you're a leader in higher ed, and you think that the silos and separations get in the way of student success, then this podcast and my upcoming book, The Connected College, are for you. We're here to learn and work together to bust silos, question tradition, and forge partnerships so that students feel connected to their college, their community, their coursework and their careers.
Karen Weaver: Well, we know that every student comes to us with a different background, a different set of academic and aspirational needs and sometimes things come along and turn it upside down. In athletics, we tend to have more resources built in for academic support, managing their schedules. We're getting better at taking care of mental health needs and those things can originate from the athletics department. Over the years, we've recognized that they need more support because the institution asks more of them and it's a big balancing act between their practice and competitive schedules. And all the extraneous things they do, and taking a full course load. Athlete departments are cognizant of that. They've built those support services into their budgets.
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Elliot Felix: What role do you think collegiate athletics plays in student success, both for student athletes, but also for the broader university community?
Karen Weaver: Well, I think it's different from campus to campus. Some of it has to do with the large cultural heritage that athletics brings. You look at a Penn or a Harvard or a Yale or a Michigan or Ohio State, people are aware of how long they've had an athletics tradition on those campuses. But other small schools, like Whittier or Ohio Northern, they're known for other things as well, besides athletics. So athletics plays a complementary role, but not necessarily the predominant role that they do in some of these older institutions.
Elliot Felix: So athletics is part of the history. It's part of the heritage more broadly for the community. How does it contribute to student success more specifically for student athletes?
Karen Weaver: Oh, so for athletes, it gives them a schedule. It gives them a routine, right? It gives them a chance to feel celebrated. Their matches or games are promoted in the campus newspaper, local newspapers and websites. Lots of Instagram photos, TikTok videos. Those who work in social media tracking for institutions say that on average about 60 percent of the engagements of the university's social media posts is around athletics. It attracts a lot of attention to the campus, particularly when the team or teams is having success.
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Elliot Felix: Before we were talking about the Dartmouth decision by the National Labor Relations Board, that strikes me as one of the things that's changing in college athletics. Can you talk about that and maybe some of the other things that are changing how this all happens?
Karen Weaver: The National Labor Relations Board only affects private employers, not public. That's what's different about the Ivy League. Is that we're all private, right? And on Dartmouth's case, they had a number of student unions already. For the cafeteria workers and other places where the students could negotiate for their working conditions, that they actually had a seat at the table. And that's what the men's basketball team has successfully argued for.
Karen Weaver: The director who ruled said that it wasn't about whether Dartmouth made money on men's basketball or not, but that they wore Dartmouth uniforms. Because they were asked to be in various Dartmouth events where they were asking alumni for money for their team or for the university, it being a PR extension of the university, and that athletes did not control their schedules. They're told when to get on the bus, when to eat. Where to stay, even if they can get a haircut on a trip. The level of control that the university exercises over these athletes functions exactly like an employer. So it's not about the money. It's about the control.
Karen Weaver: Because NIL has been in the news so much, athletes think if I don't ask, I'm kind of dumb because I do have the opportunity to make some money. My family expects me to make money. That's what everybody tells me I'm worth. So the first thing that comes up is not the academic or the ability to get a degree. It's about how much will you pay me a month or what kind of deals can I get? And that has upended the conversation for athletes about the value of their degree. You combine that with the transfer portal, where if I'm not happy I can go.
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Elliot Felix: It sounds like your first piece of advice is really to think about care and health care and everything that comes with it, whether it's facilities, insurance, rehab, resources.
Karen Weaver: And it's not just performance psychologists. We're talking about people who can help manage the stress that comes up when they have to miss three weeks and feel disengaged from their team. It's helping them manage through that really challenging period of time. They flunked a class. They didn't expect to flunk. Now, am I still going to get to keep my scholarship? Those kinds of things are real.
Karen Weaver: I think Division 1 schools have gotten that down, but nutrition is still a common problem on many campuses. The cafeteria is closed when they get back from a trip. On campuses, they call them now refueling stations. They have little mini convenience stores where you can get a Gatorade or a bottle of milk or get some power bar kind of things. That's a step in the right direction to continually fuel your body.
Elliot Felix: It seems like the broader lesson is audit your policies and your procedures relative to their feasibility for student athletes. Understanding who your students are and looking at how reasonable are these policies and requirements given their schedule or their resources.
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Karen Weaver: I think these things make a huge difference to the student athlete, and you want to retain them. We think about shiny facilities, nice locker rooms, something that's new and modern. I get that, and that's important too. But these other things make just as much of a difference.
Karen Weaver: If they feel like the school hasn't thought through how they're going to do mental health, how they're going to give the trainers a break, how they're going to solve nutrition, they're going to see that equally as frustrating and look for other alternatives.
Elliot Felix: It's kind of like an ecosystem or a support system. It's more than shiny new facilities, which it seems like you kind of need those too, but you can't forget about all these other ways to support student athletes and students more broadly.
Karen Weaver: Right.
Elliot Felix: Thanks for listening to the Connected College podcast. Subscribe to my Connected College Newsletter at ElliotFelix.com for insights and excerpts from my upcoming book, tools you can download, and special offers. Let's create connected colleges where students will succeed.