Webster University
Webster Groves Campus
Fall 2004
GNST 1200-06 Vicious Cycles: Professional Athletics and
Performance-Enhancing Drugs
Instructor: John J. Aleshunas
Office: Sverdrup 207F
Phone: 314.961.2660 ext. 7565
E-mail: jalesh@webster.edu
Web page: mercury.webster.edu/aleshunas
Course Description
Professional sport is a highly profitable industry. High-salaries, sponsorships, and
television all feed the money machine. This system creates enormous pressures for
professional athletes. They are faced with pressures to perform at the highest level,
pressures to recover from the previous maximal effort, and pressures to recover from
injury. All of these threaten to end an athlete’s career and destroy their livelihood.
Performance enhancing drugs are sometimes used to mitigate these threats and help an
individual compete. The athletes, coaches, team management, and medical personnel
are all involved in maintaining this razor edge balance between athletic success and
failure. No sport is immune and each has its own culture and rules. This course will
explore these issues using professional cycling as a starting point because of its recent
public stand against performance enhancing drugs. We will examine the public policies
and the underground culture in an environment complicated by a pharmaceutical industry
with mixed motives and set in a culture where any problem can be solved by just taking a
pill.
Objectives
1. To develop in students, through instruction and tutorial assistance, the habit of good
writing including skill in organization, an instinct for persuasive argumentative writing,
observance of the basic rules of grammar and syntax, and an awareness of different
forms of writing.
2. To teach students, through experience accompanied by constructive feedback, to
communicate their ideas orally in an organized and effective manner.
3. To provide a seminar atmosphere conducive to discussion and to develop in students the
ability to articulate and defend their ideas in a classroom setting.
4. To develop in students the skill of critical analysis and interpretation of texts.
5. To equip students with the arts of critical thinking, attentive listening, and intelligent
speaking.
6. To initiate and develop sensitivity to differences of all kinds: cultural, racial, gender, etc.
1
Learning Outcomes
At the completion of this course each student will be able to:
1. Conduct research to acquire knowledge on an assigned topic.
2. Conduct research to find information that supports an ideological position.
3. Write an essay presenting the results of your research on an assigned topic.
4. Write an essay in defense of an ideological position supported with appropriate
reference material.
5. Write an essay that compares or contrasts a concept addressed in two or three texts
and provides a critical analysis or an interpretation of these texts.
6. Write an essay that relates a story based on an assigned topic.
7. Communicate the results of your research on an assigned topic to the class in a
formal presentation
8. Collaborate with a classmate to prepare and present a discussion on an assigned
topic.
9. Participate in the in class discussions of the assigned readings and topics.
Schedule
Week
Date
Events
Readings & Assignments
1
23 Aug
2
30 Aug
CIRP Survey
Library visits
Fact Paper #1 due (1 Sep)
Assign Descriptive Paper #1 (3 Sep)
3
6 Sep
Labor Day
Reading: The Long Season
Descriptive Paper #1 due (10 Sep)
Position Paper #1 Proposal (10 Sep)
Reading: The Long Season
Assign Fact Paper #1 (27 Aug)
4
13 Sep
Reading: Rough Ride
Assign Position Paper #1 (13 Sep)
Fact Paper Presentations (13 & 15 Sep)
Group Collaboration Proposals due (15 Sep)
Assign Group Collaborations (17 Sep)
5
20 Sep
Reading: Rough Ride
Position Paper #1 due (20 Sep)
Assign Analysis Paper #1 (24 Sep)
6
27 Sep
Reading: Rough Ride
Analysis Paper #1 due (29 Sep)
Assign Descriptive Paper #2 (29 Sep)
2
Webster Works
World-Wide
Reading: Rough Ride
Reading: Breaking the Chain
Descriptive Paper #2 due (4 Oct)
Position Paper #2 Proposal (4 Oct)
Group Collaboration #1 (8 Oct)
Assign Position Paper #2 (8 Oct)
7
4 Oct
8
11 Oct
Break
18 Oct
9
25 Oct
Reading: The Immortal Class
Assign Fact Paper #2 (25 Oct)
Group Collaboration #3 (29 Oct)
1 Nov
Reading: The Long Season
Reading: Rough Ride
Reading: The Immortal Class
Fact Paper #2 due (1 Oct)
Fact Paper Presentations (1 & 3 Nov)
Assign Analysis Paper #2 (5 Nov)
Group Collaboration #4 (5 Nov)
8 Nov
Film: The Hard Road
Analysis Paper #2 due (10 Nov)
Group Collaboration #5 (12 Nov)
Assign Fact Paper #3 (12 Nov)
15 Nov
Reading: The Long Season
Fact Paper #3 due (17 Nov)
Group Collaboration #6 (19 Nov)
Assign Analysis Paper #3 (19 Nov)
22 Nov
Reading: The Immortal Class
Fact Paper Presentations (22 & 24 Nov)
Position Paper #3 Proposal (24 Nov)
Analysis Paper #3 due (24 Nov)
10
11
12
13
Reading: Breaking the Chain
Position Paper #2 due (13 Oct)
Group Collaboration #2 (15 Oct)
BREAK WEEK
Thanksgiving Break
29 Nov
Reading: The Immortal Class
Reading: The Long Season
Assign Position Paper #3 (29 Nov)
Group Collaboration #7 (3 Dec)
15
6 Dec
Reading: Rough Ride
Reading: Breaking the Chain
Position Paper #3 due (6 Dec)
Group Collaboration #8 (10 Dec)
16
13 Dec
14
EXAM WEEK
3
Texts
Rough Ride – Behind the Wheel of a Pro Cyclist, Paul Kimmage, Yellow Jersey Press,
2001, ISBN: 0-224-06170-4
Breaking the Chain: Drugs and Cycling: The True Story, Willy Voet and William
Fotheringham, Yellow Jersey Press, 2002, ISBN: 0-224-06117-8
The Long Season: One Year of Bicycle Road Racing in California, Bruno Schull,
Breakaway Books, 2002, ISBN: 1-891-36932-6
The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power, Travis Culley,
Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2002, ISBN: 0-375-76024-5
A Writer’s Reference, 5th edition, Diane Hacker, Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2002, ISBN:
0-312-39767-4
Attendance
Attendance will be taken at each class meeting. Attendance is required. Please notify me in
advance of schedule problems. You will be responsible for all material covered in class as
well as in the course readings. If you are absent, you should make arrangements with
another student for class notes and with me for any class handouts. Excessive absences
will reduce a student's grade for the course.
Assignments
Assignments are due at the beginning of class. All writing assignments should be typed in
MLA format (double spaced). The motto for all non-reading class assignments is: Have
something to say, then say it as clearly as possible.
Reading Assignments: Reading assignments should be completed before class on the
related topic to enable you to actively participate and gain more from the class discussions.
Fact Papers: Each student will write three Fact Papers. These are short (1 – 2 page)
research papers providing supplemental supporting our class discussions. I will supply the
topics for the first paper. We will choose topics for the second and third papers based on the
direction of the class discussion.
Position Papers: Each student will write three position papers. In these papers, you will take
a position on some element from our class discussions and present that position in 2-3
pages. You must support your position with reference from one or two outside sources. You
will submit a written proposal of your intended position for my approval.
Analysis Paper: Each student will write three analysis papers. In these papers, you will
compare and contrast a topic addressed in two or three of our class texts in 2-3 pages. You
must support your position with reference from these texts.
Descriptive Paper: Each student will write two descriptive papers. In these papers, you will
tell a story in 2-3 pages based on a topic that I will assign. This assignment specifically
illustrates our assignment motto: Have something to say, then say it as clearly as possible.
4
Oral Presentations: Each student will make a oral presentation of their Fact Papers to the
class. This is not a reading of the paper but rather a presentation of the information you
found.
Group Collaboration: Each student will participate in a two person collaborative project by
leading a class discussion on a topic presented to me for approval.
Grading
Your grade will be compiled from each of the class evaluation components in the following
proportions:
Fact Papers
Position Papers
Analysis Papers
Description Papers
Oral Presentation
Group Collaboration
Attendance & Daily Participation
10%
20%
20%
10%
10%
20%
10%
The course grading scale is:
90 to 100%
80 to 89%
70 to 79%
60 to 69%
Below 60
A
B
C
D
F
5