Dr. Jennifer Lee Hoffman’s and Regena Pauketat’s research focuses on state legislatures, federal courts, and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), all of which have or are considering questions of college athlete compensation. These cases also consider questions over a fair college athlete wage and other worker protections and benefits such as overtime pay, antitrust restrictions related to endorsements, medical and injury support, and access to media rights and other revenue generated by college athletic programs.
Yet, there are no models for college athlete employee status that currently exist. Therefore, we examine labor law and how changes to college athlete employment status will impact students in Washington state. We developed example college athlete employee models based on current student and staff employment categories common across the four-year campuses in Washington state. Next, we developed a curriculum for graduate and undergraduate courses, workshops and seminars for students and athletes that consider campus mission, the purposes of athletics, and athlete compensation philosophy. This curriculum also addresses current legal cases and policy changes in addition to issues such as Title IX and international student concerns.
These student-to-student activities advance novel and innovative approaches to addressing questions over what forms of compensation and employment are best suited to athletes at individual campuses.
