The University of Mississippi Athletics
STAFF BLOG: Schiferl On Student-Athlete Rigors
12/21/2009 | Athletics
The Ole Miss athletics department's senior staff and leadership publish blogs on OleMissSports.com to offer fans added insight into the overall operation of the department. Karen Schiferl is in her seventh year with the athletics department and serves as the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Academic Support.
December 21, 2009
In some recent blogs on OleMissSports.com, Athletics Director Pete Boone provided insight on academics while Executive Associate Athletics Director Lynnette Johnson discussed the challenges of recruiting. Blogs on academics and recruiting may seem unrelated, but they are very much connected.
The Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support (OSAAS) is the unit within athletics where this connection comes together. When prospective student-athletes come to campus, the staff is available to meet with them to discuss the programs and services offered to help them achieve a degree from The University of Mississippi. It is important for these prospective student-athletes to understand the rigors of being a collegiate student-athlete. It is a formidable task to be a successful student-athlete. While many talk about the time demands and pressures of Division I athletics, truly comprehending what that entails is quite difficult.
For a prospective student-athlete, the first academic step is to meet initial eligibility. Initial eligibility is a set of MINIMUM standardized academic requirements that must be met in order for a prospective student-athlete to participate at the Division I level. It is important to note that initial eligibility standards are not necessarily the same as admission standards, but for state schools in Mississippi, meeting NCAA initial eligibility is one of the admission criteria. In other words, Ole Miss has no special admission process for student-athletes.
Prospective student-athletes should register with the NCAA Eligibility Center at the conclusion of their junior year. Prospects may register online at www.ncaaclearinghouse.com. When Ole Miss recruits a prospect, they will put that individual on their Institutional Request List (IRL). The institution shares responsibility for ensuring the recruited prospect's initial eligibility. The academic evaluation of the recruit involves looking at core courses, GPA, and standardized test scores. The Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support will look at this academic information in order to plan the services and programs to help that prospective student-athlete be successful.
In the case of transfers, all the above information is reviewed but transfer courses are also evaluated for the appropriate equivalency. Transfers must not only meet The University of Mississippi's admission standards for transfers, but also meet NCAA continuing eligibility rules. This is not always as simple as it sounds since transfers will often "lose" credits upon transferring. This can make it difficult to achieve what is known as 40/60/80 or percent of degree. The OSAAS works to assess the best possible scenario for transfers so that they can keep working toward graduation.
With the shift in focus from merely keeping the student-athlete eligible, NCAA Division I has established standards that reflect a student-athlete's progress toward a degree. The intent is to move student-athletes to graduation within five years of full-time enrollment. The University of Mississippi is doing just that! The graduation rate for student-athletes has EXCEEDED the student-population for the past four years. The 2009 Federal Graduation Rate for the general population was 56 percent while student-athletes graduated at a rate of 61 percent. The Graduation Success Rate (GSR) is even higher at 78 percent. With the GSR, the NCAA includes transfers in calculating graduation numbers. Most notable is the Exhausted Eligibility Rate of 88 percent. This "stay and play" means if a student-athlete begins his/her career at Ole Miss and participates all four years, he/she has an 88 percent chance at graduation. With all these noteworthy numbers, it is clear that we are invested in our student-athletes.
To continue with our positive graduation trends, it is essential that our recruits possess solid academic credentials. Coaches must continually evaluate recruits in order to bring in qualified student-athletes who can be successful and graduate. If a coach brings in student-athletes who cannot succeed, he/she is putting the program at risk of losing scholarships, postseason competition and ultimately, NCAA status. This is because of the NCAA program known as APR or Academic Performance Rate.
The reality is if you recruit student-athletes who cannot cut it academically, you may end up being penalized for a low APR score. This does not mean that academically at-risk student-athletes will not be recruited to Ole Miss. It does mean that various policies, programs and services will be put in place to assist at-risk student-athletes. Examples include assigning tutors, mentors or learning specialists, academic monitoring, financial aid policies, and accountability policies. Accountability policies include the SEC mandated attendance policy that required sanctions of suspension from competition for missed class attendance (SEC Bylaw 14.11.17, Adopted August 2007).
We are all dedicated to providing Rebel student-athletes with an exemplary academic and athletics experience that recognizes the primacy of the academic mission of The University of Mississippi. Our goal is graduation. That goal starts with the recruiting process and continues with every academic policy, program, and service the Office of Student-Athlete Support puts in place to compliment the athletics side of the house.
June 22, 2008
The Office of Student Athlete Academic Support is charged with providing the services and programs to help Rebel student-athletes to be successful in the classroom and to obtain their degrees. Yet, there are still some misconceptions about what the unit does and does not do. Here are just a few of the most common questions:
Do you work in the summer? The answer is a resounding YES!
After five years of NCAA academic reform, the goals of the reform - keeping student-athletes participating in his or her sport while steadily making progress toward and ultimately earning a college degree - seems more within reach than ever before. But with the expectations higher, downtime for the Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support seems almost nonexistent.
As academic requirements have gone up, so have the requirements for documentation, monitoring and paperwork. And the challenge goes beyond what some consider the "at-risk" student-athletes. You must monitor everything. While it is not a bad thing, it certainly is more demanding of our time. With stiffer progress toward degree rules in place, even a change of major for a 4.0 student can jeopardize eligibility.
The pressure to get ahead and stay ahead, to be eligible and stay eligible, to work toward graduation and to graduate, means more and more student-athletes are in school year-round. Continuing student-athletes stay for summer classes, and freshmen arrive early to start their academic careers. With the many summer sessions offered (May, Summer I and II, Full Summer and August), it seems there is never a time when we are not providing services to student-athletes.
Do you tutor the student-athletes? Yes, we provide tutorial support for all student-athletes.
The Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support is fortunate to be located in the FedEx Academic Support Center. Through FedEx's generosity, we now have the space that allows us to have approximately 750 tutor sessions a week during the academic year. Our philosophy behind tutoring is that it is there to help the student-athletes achieve success; it is not about preventing failure; therefore, a student-athlete with a B in a course can request a tutor in order to get an A.
We are continually looking for good tutors to hire. Interested candidates should contact our office for more information and/or to apply.
Do you work with student-athletes with learning disabilities? Yes, we have four learning specialists on staff to assist all student-athletes, including student-athletes with learning disabilities. However, our unit does NOT test for learning disabilities, does NOT diagnose/document learning disabilities NOR do we provide accommodations for LD student-athletes.
Learning disabilities manifest themselves in many different ways. Some may be mild, while others may be more severe. Additionally, an individual may have a specific problem or multiple problems. Regardless of the scope or severity of the disability, student-athletes, like all students, MUST go through the Office of Student Disability Services (SDS) in order for a disability to be verified and accommodations provided. It is SDS that determines eligibility for accommodations and provides and coordinates the approved reasonable accommodations. SDS determines accommodations for each student based on the documentation presented and based on discussions with each individual student. Some common accommodations include note taking, additional time for exams, alternate testing environments, and priority scheduling.
The Office of Student-Athlete Academic Support realizes that a learning disability may compromise a student-athlete's ability to perform well academically and athletically. It is our goal to work cooperatively with SDS to assist learning disabled student-athletes to succeed in spite of the challenges of a learning disability. More information on the Office of Student Disability Services can be found at www.olemiss.edu/depts/sds.
Hopefully this blog answers at least a few questions about our office. I am always available to share more with interested parties about what we do and how we do it. If you have questions, please contact me at kschif@olemiss.edu or call me at 662-915-7757.
December 5, 2007
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.