Inside Athletics: Karen Schiferl

OleMissSports.com's Inside Athletics is a biweekly blog by the Ole Miss athletics department's senior administrators and key personnel to offer fans added insight into the overall operation of the department.

APR, 925, GSR, 40/60/80, 90/95, 18, 24, 6. To the casual observer, these letters and numbers may seem meaningless, but for Ole Miss' Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support and the student-athletes we serve, they are part of a daily dialogue. All those letters and numbers are outlined later, but first I'd like to share a little information about the Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support.

OSAAS is the unit within the athletics department charged with providing quality developmental and need-based programs to help Ole Miss student-athletes become independent and self-reliant learners. In an environment that promotes student development, the OSAAS staff provides this support from the time student-athletes arrive on campus through graduation.

The OSAAS staff is comprised of 14 full-time positions (Associate AD, Associate Director, two Assistant Directors, two Senior Academic Counselors, two Academic Counselors, four Learning Specialists, Academic Intern, and Senior Staff Assistant) and over 75 part-time employees (Mentors and Tutors). The staff provides resources, experience and knowledge empowering each student-athlete to reach his/her academic and personal potential. The OSAAS is committed to promoting academic success with integrity, strict adherence to University, SEC, and NCAA rules, and a dedication to excellence.

In May 2007, the OSAAS moved from its longtime home in Kinard Hall into the FedEx Student-Athlete Academic Support Center. At a total cost of approximately $5 million, the state-of-the-art wireless facility consists of 14 administrative offices, a conference room, 14 tutor rooms, a math lab, a writing lab, a large technology classroom, a computer lab and a strategic study classroom. Approximately 150 computers are available in the FedEx Center for student-athletes' use. Several of these computers include assistive technology such as Dragon Naturally Speaking software and Kurzweil technologies.

Moving into the FedEx Center could not have come at a more opportune time since the NCAA recently increased the eligibility standards for student-athletes. That is where those previously mentioned numbers and letters come into play.

The NCAA member colleges and universities adopted a comprehensive academic reform package designed to improve the academic success and graduation of all student-athletes. The centerpiece of the academic reform package is the development of an academic measurement for sports teams, known as the Academic Progress Rate, or APR.

The NCAA developed an APR metric that examines academic success on a more real-time basis. One point is awarded each term to each scholarship student-athlete who meets academic-eligibility standards and an additional point is awarded if they remain with the institution. A team's APR is the total points earned by the team at a given time divided by the total points possible. A cutoff score of 925 corresponds to an anticipated graduation rate of about 50 percent.

Ole Miss Rebels are doing well in the area of graduation rates. The most recently released Federal Graduation Rates for 2007 indicate that Rebel student-athletes are graduating at a higher rate than the general student population; 60 percent for student-athletes versus 56 percent for all students. Perhaps even more telling is the GSR or Graduation Success Rate. In the past, graduation rates data compiled by the U.S. Department of Education was used as the sole indicator of academic success for collegiate student-athletes. However, this method penalized schools for student-athletes who left in good academic standing and failed to track transfers to determine whether they ever earned a degree. The 2007 GSR for Ole Miss student-athletes is 74 percent.

Considering that being a student-athlete is at times like having two full-time jobs, student-athletes have to learn to balance their academics and athletics as they work toward graduation. They are required to meet academic standards above and beyond the standards of the University of Mississippi. These standards are known as continuing eligibility. Contrary to popular belief, there is much more to eligibility than GPA. Although GPA is definitely important, continuing eligibility rules also incorporate percent of degree and credit hour requirements. For example, a student-athlete can have a 3.5 GPA, but without the right percent of the degree completed, a student-athlete could be deemed academically ineligible. Here is a summary of the continuing eligibility rules:

Percent of degree - 40/60/80: A student-athlete is required to meet the following requirements for percent of degree requirement:

· Complete 40 percent of his or her degree program by the start of his or her third year (fifth full-time term) of collegiate enrollment;

· Complete 60 percent of his or her degree program by the start of his or her fourth year (seventh full-time term) of collegiate enrollment;

· Complete 80 percent of his or her degree program by the start of his or her fifth year (ninth full-time term) of collegiate enrollment.

GPA - 90/95: A student-athlete is required to achieve the following minimum grade-point averages:

· 90 percent of the institution's overall minimum grade-point average required for graduation for a student-athlete entering his or her second year (third full-time term) of collegiate enrollment;

· 95 percent of the institution's overall minimum grade-point average required for graduation for a student-athlete entering his or her third year (fifth full-time term) of collegiate enrollment;

· 100 percent of the institution's overall minimum grade-point average required for graduation for a student-athlete entering his or her fourth year (seventh full-time term) and any subsequent year of collegiate enrollment.

Credit hours - 18/24 and 6: A student-athlete must satisfy all of the following requirements based on his or her academic record at the beginning of the fall term or at the beginning of any other regular term of that academic year:

1. Satisfactorily complete 24 semester hours of academic credit prior to the start of the institution's third semester following the student-athlete's initial full-time enrollment;

2. For each academic year, complete 18 semester hours during the regular academic year or previous two semesters (excluding summer); and

3. For each regular academic term, earn 6 semester hours to be eligible for the next regular academic term. Summer hours cannot be used to fulfill this requirement.

Karen Schiferl

Ole Miss Associate Athletics Director

Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support

Past Articles

	11/24/2007	Inside Athletics: Blake Barnes
	11/06/2007	Inside Athletics: David Wells
	10/17/2007	Inside Athletics: John Hartwell
	10/05/2007	Inside Athletics: Sans Russell
	09/24/2007	Inside Athletics: Walker Jones
	09/05/2007	Inside Athletics: George Smith
	09/05/2007	OleMissSports.com Launches Athletics Blog

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