Opinion: Student athlete exit survey should remain anonymous

Failing to make the new student-athlete exit survey anonymous would render it ineffective.

UNC’s Faculty Athletics Committee met Wednesday and discussed a draft of the new survey, which is planned to be anonymous as of now, although Athletic Director Bubba Cunningham wants some method to identify participants added in case of NCAA infractions.

The new surveys are designed to get a feel for the academic experience of student-athletes and also alert the athletic department of any possible violations.

The integrity of the information gleaned from the survey is more valuable than discovering singular violations by athletes.

Failing to make this survey anonymous would put its value in jeopardy.

Student-athletes are naturally going to be hesitant to potentially self-report their own transgressions.

If this survey is going to have any value, it will need to be anonymous.

This would allow the participating student-athletes to feel comfortable being honest without the looming threat of negative consequences.

A more productive survey now would be better in the long run. Although anonymity could cause infractions to slip through the cracks, more accurate information could serve to create a system that would better prevent future infractions.

In George Mason University’s student-athlete survey, the school indicates that giving one’s name and sport is optional, which is something that could work for this at UNC.

The school’s compliance department shouldn’t have to rely on a self-reporting survey in order to avoid violations. There are other ways to do this, and the system in place should be sufficient.