http://www.mlive.com/wolverines/academics/stories/index.ssf/2008/03/no_standard_model_for_academic.html

Before I discuss, I want to make it abundantly clear that I don't care what school you go to and what the academic admission standards are. No college program is the same and that is ok. Student athletes bring diversity to a student body. Colleges should aim at bettering the whole person... and competitive athletics help promote this theme. In short, academic standards can differ and that you'll hopefully never hear me use this as an excuse for performance on the field.

That being said, it is the school's responsibility to develop a structure that is devoid of potential conflicts of interest. (Stepping up on my soapbox) I believe that it is the administration's responsibility to develop the athlete's mind and body. It's clear through this article that the pursuit of this ideal is vastly different from university to university. Just as in business, conflicts of interest arise... still, it's up to the administration to promote a structure to promote this ideal.

To be fair, I don't think any school has the exact right forumla. I actually believe that NU should lower academic standards for athletes. Nonetheless, I am EXTREMELY proud of NU's graduation rates and what appears to be a structure that has less conflicts of interest than certain schools. And before BD jumps on me... I have no specific axe against dOSU. It appears that things have improved meaningfully. It looks like something positive did come out of the Maurice Clarrett situation.


No standard model for academic support
by Nathan Fenno | The Ann Arbor News
Wednesday March 19, 2008, 6:05 AM

Three years ago, the shadow of Maurice Clarett hung over Ohio State University's athletic department.

The former star running back, now 18 months into a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence for robbery, claimed university professors gave him passing grades whether or not he attended class, a tutor told him what to write for assignments and his academic adviser's sole purpose was to keep him eligible.

"Reform is often born out of necessity," said John Bruno, Ohio State's faculty athletics representative and a professor of psychology and neuroscience. "They were accusations, mostly, quite frankly with the Maurice Clarett situation. We had to take a hard look at what other people were doing around the country and around the conference to help ensure academic integrity within athletics."

What emerged was a shift in how Ohio State handles academic support for athletes. In 2005, the university removed the Student-Athlete Academic Support Services Office from the athletic department and put it under control of a vice provost in the academic affairs department, according to Bruno.

Nationally, more universities are putting academic support for athletes under partial - if not total - control of academics. The University of Michigan is among the schools with a dual-reporting line, where the academic support program reports to both the university - usually the provost's office - and athletic department. Michigan made its change in 2005.

"It was a recommendation of the NCAA, and it matches the practice of a number of places," said Phil Hanlon, Michigan's associate provost.

Hanlon said he meets with athletic director Bill Martin regularly and has a year-end meeting to discuss the Academic Success Program, "sort of an annual evaluation."

Bruno, who helped lead Ohio State's transition, said he thinks an academic-only reporting line "makes it easier for the rest of the university to buy into the concept that we're treating our student athletes exactly the way we treat our students."

"The devil's always in the detail," he added. "What does one mean by dual-reporting line? How dotted is the line? At the end of the day, who calls the shots when there are conflicts?"

At Notre Dame, academic support for student athletes has been under academic control since the program started 44 years ago.

"As we move forward, I think you'll see more schools shifting this way," said Pat Holmes, Notre Dame's director of academic services for student-athletes. "It's a healthier environment."

Ohio State's change was patterned after existing programs at Minnesota and Penn State. Louisiana State, whose football team won the Bowl Coalition Series championship in January, shifted control from the athletic department to the academic side 10 years ago.

"That could look real positive, so you don't have a fox-in-the- henhouse sort of thing," Louisiana State's associate athletic director for academic affairs Tomas Jimenez said. "I think it might be more of a perception issue more than anything."

Added Holmes: "It becomes more difficult if you're (under the control) of the other side and somebody's telling you, 'This kid has to be eligible.'"

Phil Hughes is president of the National Association of Academic Advisors and a former assistant athletic director at Michigan in charge of academic support. He's a proponent of a dual-reporting line and is wary of the athletic department being taken out of the equation.

"So you can have an academic support program for student-athletes reporting to a provost who has no idea how to evaluate it, how to monitor it," said Hughes, also the associate athletic director for student services at Kansas State. "Honestly, because they often lack the expertise, they also lack the interest. What really have you accomplished?"

David Graham, who runs Ohio State's massive academic center, which supports 935 athletes in 36 varsity sports, is convinced his operation is effective in helping student-athletes.

Graham has a staff of 17 full-timers and more than 100 tutors based out of the $8.6 million Younkin Success Center. They provide an assessment when athletes arrive on campus, tutors, advising and a life skills program, among other services. Graham brought academic counselors and tutors with Ohio State to the BCS title game in New Orleans and sends tutors on the road for study tables with basketball, baseball, golf and other sports that travel during the week.

"You try to give them the best in the country," said Graham, who supports academic-side control.

Michigan's Academic Success Program is overseen by co-directors Shari Acho and Sue Shand, part of a staff with 10 full-time positions, along with 15 learning coordinators and 108 tutors. Based out of the $12 million Stephen M. Ross Academic Center, the program supports 705 athletes in 25 varsity sports, with an total annual budget of $819,485. Five university courses were taught in the building during the fall 2007 semester.

Warde Manuel, athletic director of the University at Buffalo, oversaw Michigan's program from 2000 to 2003. Like Michigan, Buffalo's academic support operation has a dual-reporting line.

The "idea of that type of structure is to make sure the academic people have another way, another person within academics they can go to, particularly when they feel pressured to do something they don't feel is appropriate within the guidelines of the university or NCAA rules," Manuel said. "They have that connection to the university so people in the university understand what we're doing and we're about the academic performance of student athletes, not trying to cheat, violate any rules or just keep them eligible."

Bruno said has seen a culture shift at Ohio State since the academic support office moved out of the athletic department. As evidence, he points to the change in tenor on committee he chairs, bringing together the office's academic advisers and the mainstream university advisers each month.

"I've seen them go from chilly to tolerant to actually deeply cooperative at this point," Bruno said. "The buy-in's been rather complete."

Four times each quarter, the academic support office e-mails each athlete's instructors for feedback on their attendance, attitude and grades. Every year, the university publishes the distribution of athletes' majors to show they're as broadly distributed as the rest of the student body. And Bruno recites the layers of accountability, from the faculty senate's athletic council (he believes it's one of the Big Ten's three most active, along with Minnesota and Penn State), to Graham and the provost's office, to athletics director Gene Smith and himself.

Ohio State isn't alone in finding ways to enhance academic support.

All freshmen athletes at Notre Dame, regardless of academic standing, are put into a transition program with sessions after practice four days each week from 7-10 p.m. Athletes earn their way out - or back in - by grade point average.

The program includes a model that generates an expected grade point average for each athlete. If an athlete is projected to get a 3.2 but is getting a 2.8, he can expect to hear from Holmes' staff.

"We want to make sure the student-athletes get the education we promise them when we recruit them. Our job is to support the student-athletes, but to challenge them, as well," Holmes said. "That kid might slide off their radar screen at some other place because he's not going to be ineligible. But our task should be to kick that kid in the butt. ... We've got to push him."

Jimenez sees more specialists - from learning to reading - in academic support operations. Louisiana State's program at the $15 million Cox Communications Center for Student-Athletes is divided into three areas: directed studies - with the specialists, tutors and mentors; advisement; and life skills.

Michigan State's student-athlete support services office employs what it believes is the country's only specialist devoted to multicultural services for athletes, a position created four years ago in response to lower graduation rates for black athletes.

Northwestern University splits three full-time academic advisers between its 475 student athletes, one of the few universities that doesn't divide advisers by sport. Margaret Akerstrom, the university's senior assistant athletic director for academics and student services, has run the program for 20 years and said she believes the arrangement keeps coaches from thinking of an academic adviser as "theirs."

The biggest point of contention during Ohio State's transition, according to Bruno, was a proposal from the provost's office to assign advisers at random to athletes. It was eventually scrapped, with the belief that having the academic support office on the university side would provide enough oversight.

At Northwestern, academics take priority when classes clash with practice time, Akerstrom said, mentioning a group of engineering majors on the football team who regularly missed practices last fall because of a scheduling conflict.

"There are no programs at this university you can't do and be an athlete. ... If we say you can be an engineer, you can be an engineer," she added. "Our coaches know when they come here that's part of the package."

Added Jim Pignataro, Michigan State's director of student-athlete support services: "We're in the business of career exploration. Telling a student athlete to major in is not what we're in the business of."