JOHN LINDROOS
The Assessment of the Athletic Department and Perception of Culture and Support is an independent online study of the USF athletic department and its student athletes through the perspective of USF students. USF psychology professor Dr. Alexander Ochoa started the study last year, aiming to get more insight and understanding of campus culture and campus climate in relation to athletics.
This is the second study of Ochoa’s Athletic Systems Lab. The first study, which is still in progress, conducts research on USF student athletes and team systems.
Data for the current study is collected primarily through online surveys and responses are kept anonymous and confidential.
Much of the survey consists of questions that gauge students’ general perception of university athletics and their athletes, their motivations to attend school sporting events, and how much they value athletics in comparison to the other school departments.
A former Division lll football and rugby player at Occidental College, Ochoa emphasized the importance of having a strong athletic culture on campus. Even though his college was Division lll, Ochoa said that there was a sense of school pride and connection in going to games and socializing with people in regards to athletics.
“That doesn’t seem to be as prevalent here or in the last few years post covid at the USF community,” Ochoa said. “The culture in relation to athletics on campus for a Division I school doesn’t, at times, feel like a Division I school.”
Ochoa mentioned when the men’s soccer team beat the number two ranked Stanford for the second consecutive year in a row. “There’s a sense of school pride that usually is associated with wins over big universities. And it doesn’t feel like that translated into a school spirit [university] wide,” he said.
In addition, Ochoa talked about the inconsistency of student attendance at games. “You go to [a basketball game vs] St. Mary’s or Gonzaga, the student sections are packed. You go to some smaller random school, student sections aren’t packed. It’s still our basketball team. The level of basketball may be different, but you still want to be supporting our team,” he said.
Furthermore, Ochoa said that USF has many great athletes that students often don’t hear about. “Triathlon, I know, has some amazing athletes, and we don’t hear a lot about them, we don’t engage a lot with them,” he said.
By creating this study, Ochoa hopes to gather data that will help create athletic and marketing strategies that can help students feel more connected to a sense of school spirit. Ochoa asked, “What are things that would increase school connectedness, school spirit and raise the prominence of the athletic culture here on campus, where going to a game is something that people want to do and are excited about?”
Ochoa said he thinks that there may be a correlation between athletic culture and student perceptions on student athletes. The survey includes questions such as, “What do you think of our student athletes? Do you feel like they represent our student values? What comes to mind about our student athletes when you think about USF, athletics, [and] our culture?”
Ochoa went more into detail on the possible disconnect between student athletes and other students, saying that students often view athletes with “elite” status and feel there’s a disconnect between them and their peers. This could potentially lead to students’ disinterest in keeping up with school athletics.
Through qualitative analysis, Ochoa hopes to find data that can be shared with the athletic department that may help bridge the gap between students and student athletes.
In regards to student attendance, the survey also gathers student motivations to attend games. Ochoa said that many students may be swayed to go to games because of free swag or food, but it’s a matter of getting those students to consistently attend games without the needed bonuses.
So far, around 170 students have filled out the survey. Through some preliminary analysis, he said that one of the main concerns that has popped up is that students are not aware of when games are. He said that there are flags around campus that show that there’s a game, but they do not specifically state what day or time the game will occur.
“They don’t know if that game is today,” Ochoa said. “They don’t know if it was yesterday, and then they don’t actually bother to look into it anymore, because there’s that ambiguity.”
Ochoa said he hopes to carry out this survey on a yearly basis, to monitor potential changes over time.
He said while student perspectives play a major role in the study, there’s broader data too. “There’s a lot of moving pieces here. There’s the athletes themselves, there’s their peers, there’s professors, right?” Ochoa said. “What would get professors, staff, faculty, all those other people going to games as well? It’s not just a student athlete piece, but that’s a large driver of it.”
Editor-in-Chief: Jordan Premmer, Chief Copy Editor: Sophia McCrackin, Managing Editor: Jordan DelFiugo, News Editor: Deeya Gupta, Sports Editor: John Lindroos
