The technical definition of social institutions is structured and created for the sole purpose of fulfilling the needs of society. As Sidney Brown posits, institutions are the core parts of any given society. Some examples of social institutions include hospitals, schools, businesses and police stations. These institutions impose structure on the conduct and the behaviour of individuals. For instance, parliament creates laws which are then enforced by the law enforcement department and in this way control the manner of the civilians. Like many other social institutions, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been a beneficiary of laws and regulations created long before it began making a profit and this has been derogatory on the more significant part since it infringes on the rights of the athletes.
The NCAA forces athletes to give up their fundamental rights like the right to due process, the right to hold down a job and that of earning a worker’s compensations. According to Grargreen (2013), this is characteristic of how other social institutions capitalize on benefiting from the services of the athletes while infringing on their fundamental rights. Although the institution can claim to exchange these rights for a shot at going pro and for the national spotlight, the benefits they accrue from these draconian laws are disproportionate to the price the athletes have to pay.
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Although college athletes mint millions of dollars for organizations like the NCAA, they are hardly paid for their effort, and the formation of the universities and the private companies condone this habit and takes advantage of the students. According to Branch (2013), the real scandal of the social structure of organizations like NCAA lies in the very structure college sports which forces students to generate millions of dollars for the colleges as well as the private companies while only getting their college fees paid and this usually the very bare minimum compared to the amounts of money they help the companies make. Colleges and universities are aware of these situations and are also beneficiaries, and this is the reason why they remain in collaboration with private companies.
The NCAA official website posits that their member institutions are categorized into three forms and these include Division I, II or III. These divisions were created more than 40 years ago, and hence, the rules and regulations that govern their operations are more than 40 years old (NCAA, 2019). Many modern companies and organizations in the US operate under such circumstances whereby they are controlled by rules and regulations that were formed at the time of their formation. Although there have been changes in terms of rules and the organizations of the society, such companies hold on to their old laws and regulations due to the benefits that accrue from it. One case in point is the Coca Cola Company.
The giant soft drink manufacturer, Coca-Cola Company, was sued for false advertising of information regarding their beverages sweetened using sugar. This complaint places blame on the company for such health hazards as obesity and diabetes (Kell, 2017). This lawsuit exposes the institutionalization of the Coca Cola company soft drink formula that was developed before the start of the company more than 50 years ago. Although it has scientifically been proven that soft drinks have an extremely high sugar content that causes health hazard to the consumer, the company has carried out with its ancient tradition of manufacturing using their chemical formulae, and this has led to numerous lawsuits and court cases.
Overall, social institutions play an essential role in controlling everyday processes and functions of human society. Although many of the laws are created for the benefit of the general community, some institutions like the NCAA hold on to their old laws as a way of benefiting from unsuspecting individuals.
References
Branch, T. (2013). The Shame of College Sports: A leading civil-rights historian makes a case for paying college athletes—and reveals how a spate of lawsuits working their way through the courts could destroy the NCAA. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/308643/
Brown, S. (2013). Social institutions | Society and Culture | MCAT | Khan Academy . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KR1bad76qg
Grasgreen, A. (2013). Schooled . Retrieved from Inside Highered: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/10/11/new-documentary-shows-academic-moral-and-financial-costs-college-sports
Kell, J. (2017). Coca-Cola Sued for Alleged Deceptive Marketing . Retrieved from https://fortune.com/2017/01/05/coca-cola-sued-soda-marketing/
NCAA. (2019). Institutional Characteristics of NCAA Member Schools . Retrieved from http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/institutional-characteristics-ncaa-member-schools
