Friday, February 16, 2007

Student-Athletes, Coaches & Deans, Oh My!

by Vicki Hill, Director of the LEC

Just finished dotting all of the i's and crossing all of the t's on a new protocol for how student athletes will (and won't) be permitted to drop classes. Very satisfying to come up with something that meets the needs of our student-athletes, our coaches and the Associate Deans in each of the four undergraduate schools. Every semester our student-athletes must satisfy two distinct definitions of satisfactory academic progress - SMU's and the NCAA's - and sometimes what works for one doesn't work for the other. Dropping a class can be short-term quick fix for an immediate problem but lead to far greater problems later. The new protocol builds in a step of more focused academic counseling and standardizes the eligibility review. (Don't you hear Jeff Konya saying thank you somewhere in the background?)

Speaking of Jeff, his office's new strategies for helping student-athletes transition from the university to the workforce look very exciting. I hope all of you will go to the compliance website and check out what's up.

Had good news to report at Wednesday's head coaches' meeting: 198 student athletes with cumulative GPAs of 3.0 and above, and and all-sports cumulative GPA of 2.901. Since spring grades are almost always better than fall grades (those first-year students do have to settle in), I think it’s quite likely that by the end of the summer, our cumulative GPA will be above 3.0 - At least that's the goal.

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