Purposeful, flourishing student athletes? Exploring promising efforts on 12 U.S. campuses

IAS Residential Fellow Professor Timothy T Clydesdale delivers a seminar on their research -

From classrooms to residence halls, faculty and staff support student athletes’ learning and development. In training facilities and practice fields, coaches and athletic staff hone their fitness and skills. And in competitions, spectators applaud their achievement. Yet despite extensive attention, student athletes struggle. Their mental health is no better than students in general, and their grades and graduation rates raise concern on many campuses. Moreover, despite efforts by many to emphasize that those listed on varsity rosters are firstly students, college athletes overwhelmingly root their identities in athletics. This is a serious problem. Former college athletes find themselves disoriented for months and years after graduating, struggling to forge new identities after exiting their varsity athlete role. Presenting results from 12 campus visits, 135+ athlete interviews, and 77+ staff, faculty, and administrator interviews, this seminar relays how campuses support athlete flourishing, and describes the promising and bumbling efforts employed.

Arrivals from 11:45 am for a 12:00 noon start. For those joining in-person, lunch will be served after the seminar from 1:00pm.

This event is hybrid format, please use the required booking button at the bottom of the page to choose either in-person or online attendance.
(Please note that in-person spaces are limited and booking is required, so we can manage numbers for catering and also the space in the seminar room)

By booking a place at this event, attendees agree to behave in a respectful manner such that everyone feels comfortable contributing as they wish. The IAS reserves the right to eject anyone who does not abide by this policy.

IAS seminars are typically recorded, minus any Q&A sessions at the end, again to encourage contributions. The recordings are then uploaded to our website on a Fellows bio page and/or Programme page, along with our IAS YouTube Channel. If you are not able to attend a seminar live, please do still register for the Teams webinar, as we will email everyone who registered to let them know once the recordings are made available.