Media mention: Article by associate professor highlighted in Washington Post, New York Times
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was created during Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency to help protect the health and safety of college athletes. Today, the organization is being critiqued for allowing student athletes to continue competing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Both The Washington Post and The New York Times highlighted this issue citing an article co-written by associate professor Thomas Baker. The article titled, “Exploring College Sports in the Time of COVID-19: A Legal, Medical and Ethical Analysis", explores the implications of resuming intercollegiate sports in the midst of a pandemic from a legal, medical, and ethical perspective.
Baker, a professor in the Department of Kinesiology, adopted an interdisciplinary approach to the question of how and when to return to sports. His research team collectively expressed their concerns regarding how NCAA member colleges are approaching the legal and ethical issues surrounding the continuation of intercollegiate sports during a pandemic.
The authors proposed 10 best practices for colleges to determine when and how to resume offering intercollegiate sports.