In my past few years at Pace, there has been a lot of controversy over the Athletics Department.

However, a good amount of Pace non-athlete students tend to blame the entire Athletics Department on the behavior of the athletes. Other athletes, not on the team involved in the controversy, blame the team the player who apparently got in trouble.

As a non-athlete myself, this seems to be completely unfair. If you pay close attention, it is always a few that ruin the reputation of many. In cases of rumors about athletes involved in write-ups, violence, foolish acts, alleged rape, and so forth, it is usually one or a couple of athletes that were actually involved. It is not the entire team; it’ is not all of our athletes.

I am not tied to any particular sports team, or athletics in general, so there is no reason for me to defend anyone involved. But whenever I feel one group on campus being ostracized, I feel as though we are not behaving as the community we should be.

Part of the reason that non-athletes sometimes complain about those playing sports is that, in the eyes of some non-athletes, “they do nothing” and “they get paid to go here.”

While it is true that athletes do receive financial assistance for being on the team, the amount of work that they each put into their sport is above and beyond. They are essentially Pace employees; they work for everything that they get.

Yes, even if they don’t win they still work. How many times have you worked out and you still don’t look like Hope Solo? They still work.

If you have ever met, or gotten to know, any Pace athlete, you understand what I am talking about. They miss out on classes, parties, events, and even sleep because of practices, workouts, traveling, and games.

There is a reason they register for classes first; they have to. Players have an extremely limited amount of time.

Did you know they have required study halls? Yes. Imagine being required to study. If you think about it, it is probably the only time that athletes have time to study anyway.

Stop referring to sports teams as having limited intelligence or getting their grades for free. Realize how much less time they have to read, study, and write papers than you do.

When athletes get written up for drinking or breaking some other violation in the residence halls, they pay the price twice.

Residential Life treats their write-ups like every other student’s, with a punishment based on the crime. Then their coach gets at them and has the task of reevaluating their future on the team. This determines their financial aid package, their future on the team, their future at Pace, their friends, whether they can afford to live on campus, etc.

I am not defending any heinous acts committed by the select group of our community that has chosen to ruin the feeling of safety on our campus. Those individuals should be punished to the fullest extent, regardless of what they are involved with on or off campus.

We, as a university, must stop blaming our departments, schools, organizations, fraternities, sororities, and teams for the fault of one professor, one Dean, one brother or sister, or one player.

This campus thrives when we support each other, not when we sectionalize and judge each other.

Do the research, know the facts and decide your feelings and opinions based off of that. Our words have more meaning and influence than we realize.