Dean Van Citters Co-Teaches a Class on University Sports

Interim Dean Doug Van Citters '99 Th'03 Th'06 (Photo by Rob Strong '04)

The course is COCO 40: The American University Athlete in the 21st Century—has given President Beilock a new perspective on Dartmouth's educational model. 

"We talk about our faculty as being teacher-scholars, but it's like nothing I've ever seen at peer institutions," she says. "The amount of time and effort the faculty put into the classroom is second to none. It gives me a new appreciation for what our faculty do in the classroom and how unique and important it is."

An interdisciplinary course on college athletics

"Modern college athletics is complex and interdisciplinary by nature, and it requires cross-institutional collaboration to do our work well," says Harrity, who is teaching the economics module. "It only makes sense to mirror that same cross-institutional collaboration in a course designed to engage and facilitate student understanding of the university athlete in the 21st century." 

The topic could not be more timely, Harrity says. In April, a judge in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals will consider a class action settlement that would establish a framework for NCAA institutions to share revenue with Division I athletes, a major departure from the NCAA's long held rules on amateurism. While the Ivy League, including Dartmouth, opted out of the discretionary terms of the settlement and plans to continue to prioritize academics and the holistic student-athlete experience, the broader landscape of college sports is facing dramatic changes. 

"We're at the biggest inflection point in college athletics history," Harrity says. "The financial realities are so unsettled right now that there are no definitive answers. So what an opportunity for students to bring their insights and questions. It makes for a fruitful, rich discussion."

Van Citters, who specializes in the biomaterials and biomechanics of artificial joints and is teaching about physiology, was a varsity rower as an undergraduate and has served as faculty athletics representative. He says each section of the course is designed to dovetail with the others. 

"My last lecture related to the nervous system and the controls that make your muscles go, and that was a straightforward handoff to Sian to start talking about the cognition that goes with that nervous system, so she could take us through sports psychology and performance," Van Citters says. "And all of that plays into Paul’s focus on identity and into the socioeconomic environment of NCAA athletics. So it all fits together."

Christesen, an expert on sports in ancient Greece, is teaching the history and identity sections of the course and has served as its organizer, wrangling such details as hiring teaching assistants and finding honorariums for guest lecturers, who have included nationally recognized scholars, professional athletes, and officials from the NCAA, among others.

"The design of the class reflects the vision that President Beilock has for the institution, organizationally speaking," Christesen says of the decision to have faculty from across the arts and sciences, engineering, and athletics teach collaboratively. "She wants to pull the various pieces of the institution together."