In March 2006, the eyes of intercollegiate sports fans turned to Durham, North Carolina. Emmett Gill, assistant professor in the School of Social Work in New Brunswick, was among them. Three white players on Duke University’s men’s lacrosse team were accused of raping a black female student from another university who was working as a stripper during a party at the house of two team captains. Gill, a Durham native and former student-athlete with family still living in town, was part of the complex town-gown relationship. The Duke case heightened longstanding racial tensions in Durham. Eventually, the North Carolina attorney general declared the players innocent.

When the new Journal for the Study of Sports and Athletes in Education called for papers in spring 2007, Gill combined several research interests, including scandals in college sports, student-athletes, and race and gender in college sports, with journalism skills learned as a sports writer to pen “The Duke Lacrosse Scandal: A Case of White Privilege in College Sports.” In an interview with FOCUS, Gill discussed some of the broader issues concerning the privileges – and challenges – that come with being a student-athlete.

Focus: Your article deals with white privilege, which alludes to the concrete benefits, access to resources, and social rewards that whites receive, unconsciously or consciously, by virtue of their skin color. But aren’t all athletes, especially “big-time” athletes or top prospects, privileged to some degree?

Gill: Yes, all athletes are privileged because they can play games and from that receive certain benefits. I believe that some are overprivileged and get too many opportunities. But sometimes we blame the student-athlete instead of those who surround him or her. As a student-athlete at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, there were some nights that I didn’t have meal money. I worked with student-athletes at West Point and the University of Maryland in the same position. So who am I to say if a booster walks up to a student-athlete and offers to buy a meal, he should decline? Most cases of privilege we see are nickel-and-dime things that would be resolved if we gave student-athletes stipends.

Focus: Will paying athletes become a reality in intercollegiate athletics, and should it? Or will that make colleges minor leagues for the NFL, NBA, or Major League Baseball?

Gill: I think it will become a reality in the revenue-generating sports. It will be “masked” as something different. I would say in five to 10 years, student-athletes will receive $200 to $300 a month to take care of their extracurricular activities and expenses. I don’t think stipends will make colleges minor leagues. It will make things fair. There are kids living below the poverty line. This is necessary for some kids to survive. I would argue that once the NCAA institutes stipends for those kids and the sports that need it, the number of crimes committed by these student-athletes will take a sharp decline. You won’t see them steal computers or shoplift or falsely use credit cards to make phone calls.

Focus: When you were a learning specialist at the University of Maryland, your caseload included eight honor roll members of the football team. When we think about learning specialists, we generally think about tutoring. Is this a misconception?

Gill: I think it is. If I’m talking to a sophomore on the honor roll, I’m already addressing his or her career development, trying to help him get a head start or to think about further education. But if I’ve got a kid who’s barely eligible and we might not retain him, then I’m doing intensive case management. I’m doing personal development and motivation, as opposed to offering career guidance. Learning specialists are at the frontline, helping student-athletes not only with their studies, but also with time management and other life skills. Many of these specialists are trained in learning disabilities – how to recognize and how to test for them.

Focus: What kinds of academic reform would you like the NCAA to implement?

Gill: I’d like the NCAA to go back to granting four-year scholarships, instead of one-year renewables. Student-athletes cannot perform academically and athletically if year after year their scholarships are in jeopardy. I also think the NCAA should have a national sports curriculum. Often, athletes have been criticized for taking classes related to sports. Coaching, sports psychology, and sports sociology have been looked upon as lesser than other majors. I think the NCAA would do our athletes and universities a great service if it implemented a universal curriculum that allowed them to engage in sports-related professions, and I think there would be a residual benefit. Athletes, especially athletes of color, could return to their universities to work as coaches or administrators where there are shortages of minorities, or in academic support, where many student-athletes don’t work with similarly looking people who may not understand their experiences.  

Focus: What courses do you teach?

Gill: I teach “Research Methods I” and “Human Behavior I” to undergraduates and “Research Methods II” and “Human Behavior II” to graduates.  I also was blessed in the fall to teach a first-year seminar, “The Role of Sport in University Life.”

Focus: What do you do for fun?

Gill: I spend time with my 13-year-old daughter, Simone, who’s in the eighth grade. She’s a travel soccer player, and I go to her games. We also come to Rutgers to watch the women’s basketball team. Simone is a huge fan of Coach [C. Vivian] Stringer and Assistant Coach [Tasha] Pointer, and so am I. I co-mentor the team with Deidre Kramer.