Issue date: 9/14/06 Section: Sports

Student athletes have always been held to higher standards. Both on the field and off the field these individuals are the face of the school. To the spectators, their opponents and the referees, these students are what others think of when Stevens Institute is the topic of conversation. However, in the past few months, student athletes throughout the nation have found a new way to stand out. Some students have chosen to post photos which show themselves or others making irresponsible decisions. Because of this, some colleges are banning their athletes from using sites that allow this activity, like Facebook, and MySpace.
During an interview with the head of Stevens athletics, Russ Rogers, this issue among others was discussed. The most important thing is that the teams stress accountability and responsibility for one's own actions. The teams up to now have chosen to allow the athletes themselves choose how they want to be viewed in regard to Facebook and MySpace, but in the coming weeks guidelines are expected to be set forth explaining what is and isn't appropriate for student athletes to be posting on Facebook. This level of trust has caused athletes to police their own actions, and thus, their profiles are a far cleaner representation of a Stevens Student than most non-athlete students.
Stevens Athletics have several rules in place for alcohol consumtion. For underage students, there is a no drinking policy, but an additional stipulation requiring all students to abstain from drinking for 48 hours prior to a contest. Each team may have other stricter rules, but these are the minimum requirements. In order to enforce this policy a first time offender faces a minimum of a one game suspension, and second time offender leads to a suspension for the entire season.
While discussing the matter of drinking and social networking sites it became clear that our sports team places a lot of faith in our players, and with good reason. Russ Rogers put it best when he stated "[coaches and I] can't be there when these types of decisions need to be made." He went on to state that he believes the role of the team leaders should be to set a good example for the team as a whole. With such tight knit and responsible teams Stevens typically is recognized for, it comes as no surprise that Stevens Athletics pushes the idea of accountability.

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