Keeping the hyphen in “student-athlete”

10/21/04

By Ryanne Forcht,
Sports Editor

The transition from high school curriculum to university academia can be a trying task for any student trying to make the grade, let alone a student overloading his or her extracurricular schedule. This is especially true for student-athletes who commit themselves to teams that engross students in time and energy-consuming events and practices on a daily basis.

In an effort to promote high academic standards and assuage the difficulty of time management that first-year students endure, some athletic programs at Seton Hill University are mandating study halls. These programs, including men and women’s lacrosse, women’s softball and field hockey, football and baseball, have proven their commitment to academic success for students by implementing and monitoring these real-time exercises in time management.

Rick Matthews, lacrosse coach, and Assistant Coach Heather Brown have assessed what they believe is required to be a star student-athlete and have developed the Academic Success Initiative for their teams. Along with mandatory study halls held in the library from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday, the initiative includes a meeting with Lynda Sukolsky, a representative from the C.A.P.S. program, and weekly progress reports students must take to their professors for both comments and signatures. For each student that fails to complete this task, the entire team runs a hill repeat, which is running SHU’s drive.

Coach Brown said, “The program helps students learn how to be responsible; also, the sign-in sheets give them practice speaking to figures of authority.”

Freshman students are required to attend these sessions for a full year.

However, once a student reaches the sophomore class and demonstrates a 3.0 G.P.A. or above, the sessions are no longer mandatory.

Coach Chris Synder’s football program follows similar guidelines. He said, “First-year college students need to get solid academic footing. With this program, we know [the football players] are studying at least an hour and a half.”

Students who have successfully completed their freshman year and retain a minimum G.P.A of 2.5 are no longer required to attend mandatory in and off-season study-halls.

Not all SHU athletic programs are following the current trend, however, including women’s soccer. Coach John Fogle said, “When we have [mandatory study-halls] is when student athletes are at risk. At this point we don’t have any, and I hope we don’t after midterms.”

Jay Pugh, a sophomore tennis player, added a student perspective. “It’s pointless for people doing well, but it should be mandatory for those who are struggling.”

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Posted by Setonian Online at October 21, 2004 08:19 PM