Are NCAA Tutor Wages Regulated by the NCAA or Individual Universities?

[member 428835]

Hey PF!

I am wondering about a question and after a long research I've decided to go to the smartest forum on the web: you all.

The question is, for US universities, do tutors who are employed by a university have wage caps when tutoring student athletes set out by the NCAA or is wage governed by each school?

To elaborate, I am an employed tutor for student athletes and the school assigns me weekly hours and pays me. We even have a building for only student athletes and tutors (yes, an entire buiding!) where tutoring MUST take place. We have notes we are required to write after each session. It is very formal.

Thanks for your time!

 

[Evo]

I would hope that tutors for athletes receive no more than other tutors. A tutor is a tutor, except tutoring mentally disabled students probably deserve more. My girls are tutors at two different colleges and they get the same amount per hour, but they are in the same state, even though one had to learn sign language to work with deaf students.

 

[member 428835]

Evo, you presuppose the purpose of my post is to claim a difference in pay between athletes and regular tutors. Ironically, I am employed by both, and the purpose of my post, while ultimately too detailed to list here, is not to claim athletic tutors should earn more. please, if able, stick to my post's topic, as I'm hoping this doesn't go on an argumentative route.

and if you know of any wage restrictions, please list them! i'd appreciate it

 

[Evo]

Evo, you presuppose the purpose of my post is to claim a difference in pay between athletes and regular tutors. Ironically, I am employed by both, and the purpose of my post, while ultimately too detailed to list here, is not to claim athletic tutors should earn more. please, if able, stick to my post's topic, as I'm hoping this doesn't go on an argumentative route.

and if you know of any wage restrictions, please list them! i'd appreciate it

You are the one that made the distinction. My comment was not directed at you.

Are you a student that tutors or is this an actual job (you do this professionally)? There is a difference. The amount paid to tutors depends on the college, so any restrictions would also depend on the college. Are you paid by the college? I don't understand why you would think there is some standardized wage or restrictions that would apply to various institutions.

If you are specifically inquiring about the NCAA, I found this, but it is still specific to that particular college and does not specifically address wages.

http://uncw.edu/ulc/about/documents/NCAACompliance-Revised.pdf

 

[D H]

The question is, for US universities, do tutors who are employed by a university have wage caps when tutoring student athletes set out by the NCAA or is wage governed by each school?

Caveat: I am not a tutor, a student-athlete, a school administrator, an NCAA administrator, or a lawyer. My advice might be worth nothing.

The NCAA can't have a meaningful wage cap on tutors. A college in the heart of a city with a high cost of living will in general pay its tutors substantially more than a college in the heart of the boondocks. What the NCAA can do and does do is to ban "extra benefits" for student-athletes. A school that pays its tutors for athletes considerably more than what they pay for tutors in general would most likely constitute an extra benefit. Whether a school can pay a bit more than nominal for their athletic tutors is skating on thin ice, but skating on thin ice what colleges do when it comes to their athletes.

To elaborate, I am an employed tutor for student athletes and the school assigns me weekly hours and pays me. We even have a building for only student athletes and tutors (yes, an entire buiding!) where tutoring MUST take place. We have notes we are required to write after each session. It is very formal.

There are a number of reasons for this. One is that it's a benefit that doesn't qualify as an illegal extra benefit -- so long as the school provides comparable services to the student body at large elsewhere. A school that has a dedicated tutoring center for athletes has a leg up on recruiting compared to those that don't.

Another reason is the prima facie evidence is that schools cheat when it comes to athletics. A school has to be able to prove to the NCAA that it isn't cheating. Having a dedicated facility where the rules you tutors have to follow are stricter than you might follow elsewhere and keeping detailed notes on what help was offered provides the evidence that overturns the presumption of guilt regarding a school cheating on behalf of their athletes.

 

[member 428835]

thank you both for your time! the reason for my inquiry (since it seems rude not to say) is that i make $10/hr tutoring student athletes, which my university pays me. however, at other tutoring spots on campus the school paid me $13/hr and i was curious why.

a co-worker told me she tried asking for a raise (from $10/hr) and allegedly the supervisor told her there was an ncaa governed price cap. i believe, as D H as mentioned, this is not true (a little more research indicated other universities pay the student-athletes more than $10). thus, either bad information was given or a misunderstanding occurred.

either way, i appreciate both of your time and consideration.

 

[Evo]

thank you both for your time! the reason for my inquiry (since it seems rude not to say) is that i make $10/hr tutoring student athletes, which my university pays me. however, at other tutoring spots on campus the school paid me $13/hr and i was curious why.

a co-worker told me she tried asking for a raise (from $10/hr) and allegedly the supervisor told her there was an ncaa governed price cap. i believe, as D H as mentioned, this is not true (a little more research indicated other universities pay the student-athletes more than $10). thus, either bad information was given or a misunderstanding occurred.

either way, i appreciate both of your time and consideration.

That's odd that you are making different rates, do you have certifications that are counted by one and not the other?

 

[D H]

That's odd that you are making different rates.

Not really that odd. Supply and demand. Some will be motivated by school spirit to tutor those student athletes at a reduced rate, others will be motivated to get a chance to meet those athletes. Particularly young females who think jocks are hot.

 

[Evo]

Not really that odd. Supply and demand. Some will be motivated by school spirit to tutor those student athletes at a reduced rate, others will be motivated to get a chance to meet those athletes. Particularly young females who think jocks are hot.

My girls have their CRLA level 2 certs, and they made the same. This is for peer tutoring.

Here is an example, of course the actual wage varies by school, but the tutor wages are usually set for that school.

What Do I Get Paid?

Tutors will be paid based on their level of training. Those students who have not attained level one certification will be paid $10.00 per hour. Pay rates per hour for those who have attained the appropriate level of training are shown below

Level 1: $11.25
Level 2: $12.50
Level 3: $15.00

http://www.mills.edu/student_services/peer_tutoring/tutors.php

 

[D H]

Evo, Mills College is about as far from the situation described by the OP as one can get. Mills College is a Division III school. Mills doesn't have a male football team or a male basketball team because Mills is a women's college (undergrad level). Mills also doesn't have the highly competitive female teams that those Division I teams have. Those big school teams draw big endowments from alums. It's a different world.

The OP almost certainly comes from a Football Bowl Subdivision college where the salaries for the coaching staff alone would decimate Mills College's endowment. I wrote "almost certainly" because those are the only schools that can afford to have (or would want to have) a separate tutoring center (tutoring building!) just for athletes.

 

[Evo]

Evo, Mills College is about as far from the situation described by the OP as one can get. Mills College is a Division III school. Mills doesn't have a male football team or a male basketball team because Mills is a women's college (undergrad level). Mills also doesn't have the highly competitive female teams that those Division I teams have. Those big school teams draw big endowments from alums. It's a different world.

The OP almost certainly comes from a Football Bowl Subdivision college where the salaries for the coaching staff alone would decimate Mills College's endowment. I wrote "almost certainly" because those are the only schools that can afford to have (or would want to have) a separate tutoring center (tutoring building!) just for athletes.

Yes, I am aware, I only used Mills because they had a very clear page about peer tutoring, which sounds like the program the OP is in. The CRLA is the major collegiate tutoring certification board for student peer tutoring for reading/writing.

I find it odd that at the same school he would be offered less to tutor the athletes and am curious what his answer is about any differences he is aware of. I'm wondering if it is a difference of subject or certifications, because I think he asked a very good question.

http://www.crla.net/

 

[member 428835]

yea, the reason i make different wages is because the two facilities are managed under autonomous campus organizations, and thus a wage discrepancy emerges. honestly, i don't agree with it, but hey, I'm still working for both so obviously someone upstairs is doing something right.

as for the school, i work for the University of Oregon, so yes, it's nearly the hottest NCAA D1 football program in the nation. bottom line, our athletics have money (160$ million on a new football center alone, the building I'm in is about 60$ million i think. it has a moat and is made of pure glass). with this kind of money, I'm shocked why our rates are so low.

and then, they wonder why they don't attract higher quality tutors...sorry, i could go on for hours. anyways, thanks for both your concern and advice. i asked for a raise today, and i'll find out in about a week if I'm qualified, so keeping my fingers crossed.

also, there are no tutoring licenses I'm aware of, although i have been tutoring for this university for about 15 terms and graded graduate level mathematics at our university; thus i feel I'm qualified to earn more than .90$ more than minimum wage (in oregon 9.10$ is minimum).

thanks!