Question

After reading chapters 1-4 "cheated" by Smith and Willingham's book, please respond to the following questions: What factors contributed to the creation of the scenario which led to this scandal? Why is the term "student-athlete" such a hot button phrase?

Answer 1

Disasters are defined as phenomena caused by environmental events or armed conflicts that lead to fatalities, injuries, stress, physical damage and economic breakdown of great significance. They occur on a scale that overwhelms local resources, usually requiring external assistance. Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions, and the fairness of their distribution, is crucial in the field of disaster response. For that reason, increasing and improving the scientific evidence for disaster relief is essential. Research is also vital to accurately describe phenomena in disasters, also called humanitarian emergencies or crises. Conducting research during or in the aftermath of disasters poses many specific practical and ethical challenges. This is particularly the case with research involving human subjects where data collection must be balanced with the appropriate protection of research subjects. Researchers play a central part in this analysis, as does the system of research ethics review. Such a system, involving research ethics committees (RECs) or institutional review boards (IRBs), is crucial to ensure compliance with existing international and national standards and more general principles of research ethics. The extraordinary circumstances of research conducted in disaster settings require appropriate regulations to ensure the protection of human participants. We decided to perform a systematic qualitative review of existing disaster research ethics guidelines to collect and compare existing regulations. The goal of this study is to systematically and qualitatively review the existing ethical guidelines for disaster research using the constant comparative method (CCM).

Disaster studies address the social and behavioral aspects of sudden onset collective stress situations typically referred to as mass emergencies or disasters. Disaster studies address the impacts of these events on all social units ranging from individuals and households to nation-states.
Disaster Prevention and Mitigation. The ultimate purpose of emergency management is to save lives, preserve the environment and protect property and the economy. Emergency management is comprised of four interdependent risk-based functions: prevention/mitigation, preparedness,response and recovery.

Disasters are of two types Natural and Human induced disasters, further these disasters are divided in to different types such as Naturaldisasters are divided in to following types, Geophysical earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and volcanic activity.

In February of 2015, four-star high school football recruit Roquan Smith interrupted that usual script when he verbally announced that he was going to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to play but declined to sign the NLI on Signing Day. While other athletes were signing with UCLA, Smith waited as word circulated that the coach responsible for sparking his interest, defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, was contemplating a career move to the National Football League. Four days after Signing Day, Ulbrich’s acceptance of a job offer from the Atlanta Falcons was confirmed. With Ulbrich’s departure, Smith reopened his recruitment. Had Smith signed the NLI on Signing Day, he would have been bound by the provisions in the letter, which expressly state that the agreement “remains binding if the coach who recruited you leaves the institution with which you signed” (National Letter of Intent, 2015). His future would have been jeopardized, because he had no way of controlling who the new coach might be, what kind of defensive schemes that coach might run, and whether Smith would be seen as playing a key role under a new coach. And at a fundamental level, Smith’s actions also point to the uncertain understandings recruits have about the agreements they are signing. Even with the letter’s specified emphasis on the agreement being between the institution and the player, the relationship the player had was not with the institution but with the coach who had been tasked with getting the athlete to sign on the dotted line.

While Smith’s refusal to sign the NLI, given what he was learning about the situation at UCLA, was novel, he was not alone. Detroit running back Mike Weber learned the day after he signed the NLI that the coach who recruited him to go to Ohio State University announced his departure for the professional ranks.