Division I Move Spurs Big Changes for Student-Athletes
Men's lacrosse players, from left, Brandon Luitwieler, Shawn Dickey and Ray Cozzi study chemistry with student tutor Abby Sheehan at the academic center.
11/26/2014
By Ed Brennen
Huddled around laptops and whiteboards, nearly two dozen student-athletes from a variety of sports and majors work with tutors on calculus problems and English papers, compare chemistry notes and consult with academic coordinators on scheduling.
Since its doors opened in September, more and more of the university’s 430 student-athletes have taken advantage of the workspaces, resources and convenience of the new and improved academic center — one of the key initiatives in last summer’s $3 million renovation of the 50-year-old Costello facility.
“The academic center has quickly become the heartbeat of our athletic complex,” says Athletic Director Dana Skinner. “It supports our goal of providing a high-quality learning environment for our student-athletes. They are students first, and the addition of this facility will significantly enhance our student-athletes' academic potential.”
The student-athletes agree.
“It’s amazing,” says sophomore women’s soccer player Sam Balbierz, an exercise physiology major. “I’m here almost every day. It’s a great place to focus and actually get work done.”
Raising Their Academic game
Along with a bigger and better athletic training facility and renovated locker rooms, the new academic center is part of the university’s four-year plan to expand services to student-athletes as they compete at the Division I level. In year four of the plan, an NCAA committee will review everything from budgets to staffing to facilities to make sure the program meets certain benchmarks.
“We were pretty good for the Division II level, but now that we’re Division I, we’re catching up with the Joneses,” says Kristi Stake, associate athletic director for student-athlete services.
Catching up will be easier thanks to the recent addition of three new staff members: Associate Athletic Director for Compliance Sandra Niedergall and Coordinators for Academic Support Services (http://www.goriverhawks.com/staff.aspx?staff=232) Michael Anderson and (http://www.goriverhawks.com/staff.aspx?staff=233) Lauren Trapasso. Student-athletes can drop by their offices at the academic center to talk about classes and make sure their schedules meet the sometimes-tricky NCAA eligibility guidelines.
“I thought (scheduling) would be nice and easy, but it’s really hard,” says freshman men’s soccer player Jake Davis, a math major. “But being here, it’s all-in-one. I can go study for an hour, and if I have a question about a class, I can come talk to Lauren for 5-10 minutes, then go back to studying.”
Field hockey coach Shannon Hlebichuk, who can see student-athletes constantly coming and going to the academic center from her office, says it will be an important piece of the recruiting process.
“The other Division I universities that we’re recruiting against have academic centers like this, so it puts us on par with everyone else,” says Hlebichuk. “And the space itself is awesome. To bring parents through that, to bring prospective student-athletes through that, it shows that we are placing an emphasis on academic success as well as athletic success.”
A space of their own
The new ground-floor space, located next door to the weight room (in the former wrestling room), is a marked improvement on the old academic center — a narrow, single room on the third floor. It features a common area with five desktop computers and two laptops (couches and armchairs are coming soon), as well as three soundproof study rooms and a multi-use team meeting room with a projection screen and AV hookup.
“It’s night and day from what it was,” says Alan Zebrak, associate athletic director for facilities and events, who notes that the square footage has more than tripled, from 670 to 2,250.
“We tried to lay it out in a way that was conducive to different learning styles,” adds Stake. “And the students like having the space as their own. It’s a place where, if they’ve got 30 minutes to kill, not even just to study, they can go sit and be comfortable.”
In addition to providing peer tutors and student mentors, Stake and her team have set up “community learning” evenings at the academic center where student-athletes from different teams can connect with others in the same program (health sciences on Mondays, business on Tuesdays and engineering on Wednesdays).
“From an adviser position, it’s great to see baseball players talking to soccer players talking to lacrosse players,” Trapasso says. “To have support amongst this group of students is critical for us in building and establishing an academic culture here. We’re thrilled to see it.”