A report released by the UC Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate last Friday says that priority course registration for athletes does not impede the ability of other students to register for classes.

The report­ examined data from more than 1,571 classes that campus athletes enrolled in last semester, finding that only seven classes were filled during Tele-BEARS Phase I. The report added that only an additional 47 were filled by the end of Tele-BEARS Phase II.

The campus division of the Academic Senate will discuss the issue and other aspects of intercollegiate athletics at it next meeting this Thursday.

Priority registration, which has been available to athletes since at least 1991, benefits almost 900 student-athletes on campus, as well as disabled students and military veterans.

Derek Van Rheenen, director of the Athletic Study Center said the study offered valuable insight into the impact of priority registration.

"I think that it's important to do these kinds of studies to ensure that there isn't a small population of students that get stigmatized for being the reason why students might not get into certain courses," he said.

However, Margaretta Lovell, a UC Berkeley professor of art history, questioned the validity of the study.

"This data is from one semester only and has no way of addressing non-athletes whose only opening for a section in their schedule (because of labs, seminars or similar) was the athlete section and therefore gave up taking that course altogether," she said in an e-mail.

Brian Barsky, a UC Berkeley computer science professor, said that the rationale for giving student athletes priority registration due to their inflexible practice schedules was ill-founded.

"How is that different from students in the Cal Band or the (UC Men's Chorale) who participate at the games and have similar constraints due to hours of practice?" he said.

However, student-athletes said the priority registration helped them balance extra-curricular activities with academic commitments.

"If I didn't have priority Tele-BEARS registration it would take me seven years to graduate," said Kristin Rimbach, a UC Berkeley freshman and track athlete.

UC Berkeley professor of optometry Stanley Klein, who helped author the report, said the senate was interested in looking at the situation of students with jobs to see if they too should qualify for priority registration.

However, while other groups may feel deserving of the benefit, the senate must be careful, said Christopher Kutz, chair of the Academic Senate.

"If you've acknowledged the principle here, then you have to look into extending it, but this is the kind of thing that if you extend it too broadly then nobody has an advantage," he said.

Tags: INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS, ACADEMIC SENATE