Student-athletes throughout the athletic department took to social media to share their voice for Big Sky and NCAA Inclusion week.
Utilizing the vast world of social media, throughout a five-day span student-athletes shared personal anecdotes and their thoughts on diversity.
Claire Johnson, senior defender on the Idaho soccer team and the Student- Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) president, said the initiative started within the NCAA and was passed down as conferences across divisions picked it up — including the Big Sky for Big Sky Inclusion.
The initiative aimed to shed the stereotype that student-athletes are simply in school to advance their academic career and spotlight diversity within athletic departments.
“The goal of this week and the movement was showing students on campus, showing the public, showing just anyone, that being a student-athlete is more than playing your sport at your college,” Johnson said. “I think some people overlook that, so I think they just wanted to bring it to light that why student-athletes are actually at school, not just to play the sport.”
Johnson said the initiative was discussed over the summer but brought to fruition nearly two weeks ago. The NCAA and Big Sky inclusion campaign was brought to life over social media, as athletes were given prompts for each day of the week that touched on diversity, said senior defender and SAAC vice president Kelly Dopke. The prompts included diversity statistics, explaining what diversity means to the athlete and sharing who the athlete is outside of athletics amongst other prompts.
The campaign utilizes social media, which Dopke said helps share their message to a wider group of people. Johnson said social media allowed athletes across the country to participate and share their message, as well as connect with other student-athletes across the country.
“It was cool seeing that it wasn’t just a certain part, or a certain conference, it was everyone within the NCAA was making an impact no matter if they’re D I, II, III, no matter conference size or anything like that,” Johnson said. “It was really cool having it be such a wide-spread campaign that actually everyone participated in.”
While the main intent of the Big Sky Inclusion movement was to showcase diversity and a different side of the student-athletes who are often thought of simply as student-athletes, Johnson said it unintentionally serves to bridge the gap between students and student-athletes.
“They are here to get that degree, they are here to create relationships with teammates, faculty, community members and I think that is overlooked by people because they kind of stereotype in a way — they just come and get by in classes super easy and their teachers just give them passes,” Johnson said. “People don’t really know the reality behind it, they just kind of stereotype it. I think this just kind of sheds some light on that we are here to be students.”
Ty Graham, junior linebacker for Idaho football and SAAC member, said the initiative works to lower the pedes- tal athletes are often placed on amongst university students and staff.
“Especially football, football more than anything, because there are a lot of sports in the university who just train and they go through, whether it’s school and sports at the same time, but I think it’s able to bring down the pedestal of realizing we are just like everyone else in the university,” Graham said.
Students across campus have no shortage of options when choosing where to be involved, from Greek life to clubs or athletics, but the divide between the athletes and the larger student body can create a cross-campus divide, Johnson said.
“Our school, at times, can be divided,” Johnson said. “It’s starting to progressively get better, but we just want to continue moving forward, making our campus closer overall.”
Meredith Spelbring can be reached at [email protected]