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From: "Simon Weeks" <GGA95SEW@sheffield.ac.uk>
To: graysd@monetpost.stdavids.ncr.com
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 17:16:59 +0000
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Subject: Student Eligibility - Sorry to those uninterested
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Appologies to any of you are not interested, but as Dave felt it
necessary to put his message out on Britdisc I feel those who are interested
in this issue should be able to read my response.
> I believe these new regulations were the result of attempting to clear up
> the ambiguity of old. This was undoubtedly good as they are far clearer
> than before. I am however less convinced that they provide the ideal
> long term solution.
> The rules for this year (as I understand them).
> 1. Only full time students (on a graduating course) can play
It states in the rules that part-time students are eligible to play along as
studying is shown to be their primary occupation (this is just to
stop people doing just one hour a week so they can play student ultimate
- apparently it has happened in the past!!)
> 2. Students may only play for their institution. If their institution
> does not have a team then they may only play for their geographically
> closest team and they may only play for this team if they practice with
> them at least once a week.
Would you not agree with this. Surely if you are going to play for a
University team you've got to train with them. It's not fair for a
University to pull in a few local talents just to strengthen their
team for important tournaments. If they make an effort to train
regularly and compete for the team in the academic year in question
then there is no problem.
> 3. You can't play for more than 4 years as a student
Remember it is still five years this year. The original message to Britdisc
has already caused someone to panic thinking they're ineligible for the
tournament this weekend.
> These rules presently exclude the following groups of players:
>
> Staff of an institution
Do you really think staff should be part of a University team?
Eligible at Open tournaments absolutely, but in Student
competitions, we're not trying to find the University with the best
staff team!
> Students at institutions without a team who don't happen to play
> regularly with their "local" student team
My sentiments are explained above.
> Juniors not at a HE institution
Juniors are again not students of the institution so for the two
student competitions that we do get a year, let's keep to HE
Institution Students.
> Very experienced students
Now this is a more in depth issue and I have spoke to Norm and Alex
(welshy) about this. I am still not convinced about the rights and
wrongs of eliminating 'experienced' students, but I feel that when Si
Hill and Barry O'Kane drew up these rules they thought long and hard
about this rule. However, once again it is necessary to notice that
we are only talking about two tournaments a year of the many
tournaments that student teams enter.
> To my mind the way to look at this issue is from the point of view of
> "What is the point of student competition?" When this question is asked
> then there are 2 viable models to choose from.
> Model 1: Student competitions are to provide competition between
> institutions.
> Model 2: Student competitions are there to provide a different
> kind/level of competition to that of the open
> tournaments.
With the two competitions that we organise each year we are
specifically interested in crowning the best 'student' team in the
country. It is a competition between the students of the
institutions. It may well be that many student teams have an open
team set up around the University team, but 'student' competitions
are, as far as I am concerned, to be between the students.
I feel that in most cases eligibility rules are fair regarding student
competitions, although I would still be willing to listen to other
opinions on the issue of whether experinced players should be excluded
or not.
Hope that clears it up a little,
Simon Weeks
Student Coordinator