Dean A. Purdy

Are Athletes also Students? The Educational Attainment of College Athletes

Though the educational attainment of college athletes has become a major concern in the United States, there has been little research on the relationship between participation in college sports and educational attainment. We studied more than two thousand athletes over 10 years at a major western university and found that athletes were less prepared for college and achieved less academically in college than the general student population. All athletes did not perform equally, however. Scholarship holders, blacks, and participants in the major revenue-producing sports of football and basketball had the poorest academic potential and performance.

The academic preparation and achievement of black and white collegiate athletes.

Data on all varsity athletes at a major university over a ten-year period were examined to assess the differences, if any, between whites and blacks in precollege academic preparation and college achievement. White athletes scored higher than their black peers on every measure of academic potential—ACT, SAT, high school rank, and high school grade point average. These differences in preparation translate into greater academic success in college for whites, both in better grades and a higher graduation rate. These findings confirm that schools with big-time sports programs tend to recruit black athletes who are academically marginal, thus a high rate of academic failure for them. The implications of this form of racial exploitation are elaborated.

Organizational Linkages among the Inner Group of the Capitalist Class

Abstract This study investigates the non-corporate organizational linkages among the inner group of the capitalist class, defined as those who are interlocked with three or more corporations. To the extent that persons already linked through corporate ties also are connected through common memberships in business organizations, social clubs, and other voluntary organizations, the likelihood of a national cohesive power elite is increased. The corporate data used are from the 1976 government study of the 130 major companies in the United States, controlling collectively 25 percent of all assets. The biographical data on the 66 individuals found to sit on three or more boards among these 130 companies were taken from Whos Who. Several key organizations were found where the members of the elite were especially interconnected. A cluster of 15 individuals with 13 or more common memberships within the 66 were identified as having the greatest linkages. The analysis of the number of common links for each possib...

Interlocking Ownership Among the Major Banks

A central issue among political sociologists has been the nature and distribution of power within and among social organizations. This research note examines the potential concentration of power within one industry banking. The degree to which power among the banks is concentrated has important ramifications for the economy and for society. Most significant is their influence and control over corporations. The leverage of banks over corporate decisions stems from: (1 ) the decisions to grant or deny credit; (2) bank officials who serve on corporate boards of directors (see, Allen, 1974; Sonquist and Koenig, 1975; Kotz, 1978; Senate, 1978b; and Dye, 1979); and (3) the control of voting rights by bank trust departments (see, Congress, 1978a; Kotz, 1978, 1979; Reinemer, 1979). The unique role of banks within the

The corporate inner group

The inner group of the economic elite is composed of those persons who are directors in more than one major corporation. Using government data on interlocking directorates among the top 130 corporations, this paper examines the frequency of interlocks among the 13 largest (holding one‐eighth of the nations corporate assets). The data show that each of these 13 companies had an average of 4.5 direct and 122.5 indirect links with the others. Twenty‐six individuals were found to hold multiple directorships within this cluster of 13 corporations, thereby comprising the inner group. None of these 26 sat with fewer than 6 other members of the inner group. Their linkages to the remaining corporations in the top 130 is remarkably high, providing further evidence of the inner groups potential power.