Blog Post 4
Brandon McNeal
Professor Jenkins
Intro to Government and Politics
28 April 2021
Blog Post 4
For the fourth and final Blog Post I have decided to not talk about any of the physical or noticeable problems we see in Division III. I am going to talk about something that people may believe is not important or non-debatable, but I believe it makes perfect sense. In my previous blog posts, I discussed the obvious issues we tend to see in Division III. In my first one, I discussed on how there is a lack of overall resources and total lack of funds. Next, in the second blog post, I reiterated the same idea. Although, I talked about how if we were to have much more money, we could then make the experience better. I said that we could combine the culture of a small school with the overall magnificent experience of a large state school. Then finally, in the latest blog post, the third one, I talked about how the already low funds in Division III is put strictly to classes and academics opposed to sports. All these topics have a common ground; they all make the college run smoothly. Now, for my fourth and final blog post I would like to express the importance of the reputation of Division III schools nationwide.
For starters, what is the general overall though of small Division-III schools? I can tell you what I thought when came on my visit and was thinking about coming to a small liberal arts school. I was thinking aren’t they small? I’m not going there; I will be miserable, and there’s no benefits of going there. Well, I think the belief of Division-III institutions should be drastically reimagined. Division-III colleges like Birmingham-Southern are mostly liberal arts. They also have, if not, fewer, close to fewer students than I went to high school with. Although, what students, especially high school kids, don’t realize is the education is legit. I remember hearing on my visit the education is great, and if I decided to go to Birmingham-Southern it would open so many doors. Almost 2 years down, I now understand what they meant, because school at Birmingham-Southern College is straight-up difficult.
Its difficulty doesn’t consist of odd tasks that I’m not accustomed to from high school, but it is very challenging on how hard I have to work along with football. Not only do I have to work hard on assignments and manage my time very wisely, but the courses here really challenge the brain. I came from the county in Alabama, so the school workload and school systems weren’t all that stimulating. Therefore, I really had to catch up to people that jumped in without slowing down; it was an immense culture shock for me my second semester when classes really started picking up. When I talk to my friend either I grew up with or I went to high school with, and they tell me what they’re doing at a state school or community college, and it is almost laughable. Yes, the big schools do have some perks, which I talked about in the previous three blog posts. Although, I am getting so much more out of my time and money while I’m in college. It really clicked for me this semester, and I feel that I truly understand why my parents really wanted me to go here. With that, I’ll without a shadow of a doubt, understand it that much more once I get into the work force. It makes sense though; it is a very simple equation. Employers will want to hire me if I get a diploma from here, because not only is the name attractive from prior knowledge, but they also understand the type of work that goes into a degree from an institution like BSC. We are simply using all the tools needed in the task force: group cooperation, work ethic, time management, and so forth…
Why is this all so important? I say all that to say that there is a common misconception that Division-III schools are bad and if you are not good enough in sports or you need to improve your GPA to get into a higher-level state institution, you can go there then transfer. These are some of the thoughts that went through my mind when deciding what college to got to. We have let social media and wrong judgements affect the way everyone thinks how Division-III schools are. What is a good way to stop it? I think it is slowly getting better. I think the best way to accomplish this goal is to inform people. This goes back to the first blog post: we try to get as many people as possible to attend your institution, because the people that love D-III are D-III graduates. Then, we get more people, which means more money for better resources and a better experience. Another way goes back to blog post 3, and we make sports a priority. We want to make sports a priority, because everyone loves sports, but about 90-95% of students play a sport at Birmingham-Southern when they first arrived. Therefore, if we prioritize sports, more people will come here. When people go the Division-III route and graduate, they tend to love it, allowing to spread the love. Finally, this will make division-III much more famous and relevant, and people will understand why Division-III is just as viable as Division-I or Division-II.
In conclusion, it is important to orchestrate the correct opinion of your college and Division-III as a whole. We all know that reputation is everything, especially in the business world; it is what the makes the world go around. Therefore, we must take effective measures like making sports a priority and trying to improve the graduation totals every year, so the reputation of Division-III is improved. Finally, it works both ways. The more students and graduates you get, the more money and resources the college can allow. This will then lead to a better campus all around and nicer things.