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Athletes' academic improvement discussed
By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor
UB's football team is experiencing "a season of firsts" this year, according to assistant director of athletics communications Paul Vecchio:
Having won the most games in a season since becoming a Division I-A team, a Bulls win this Saturday would mean winning four home games in a season for the first time since 1998.
A victory against Bowling Green State University would keep the Bulls' MAC East Division title hopes alive, as well as moving them closer to post-season play for the first time in their Division I history.
Victories in the final two games of the season also would make the team bowl-eligible for the first time since joining Division I.
But it was another first—the fact that the players this past spring achieved the highest combined GPA of any football team in the past nine years—that Vecchio came to talk about with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee yesterday as part of a report from the senate's Athletics and Recreation Committee.
Vecchio spoke about the football team's improvement in academics, as well as the strong performance of other UB teams in the NCAA Academic Progress Rate program, now in its fourth year at UB.
UB Athletics lost two scholarships for 2006-07—and could possibly lose a third in the near future—based on the poor academic performance of three UB football players who failed and then left the university, resulting in an APR score of 878. Teams must score 925 out of 1,000 points on the APR, which identifies both high and low academic-performing teams in the Division I Academic Performance Program. The rate measures academic eligibility and retention of student-athletes by teams each semester, and a 925 score calculates to an approximate 60 percent graduation success rate.
Vecchio said the arrival of Warde Manuel as UB's director of athletics meant strengthened academic support for university athletes.
"The penalties in our football program occurred under a previous head coach and administration," Vecchio said. "Since Warde Manuel has come in, the most significant thing he has done has been to put a lot of money into our academic tutorial services and academic advising group to make sure we do not suffer these sorts of penalties in the future. That's an area Warde had direct responsibility over at Michigan."
As a result, other teams that were on the borderline in their APR scores also have risen "above the cutline of 925 out of 1,000, so we're moving in the right direction.
"The rules of the NCAA have caused what they hoped it would cause, which is a greater focus on making sure you are recruiting student-athletes who can do college-level work and once you have them, what are you doing to ensure their academic success," Vecchio said.
Russ Crispell, assistant director for outdoor pursuits and for 13 years the UB head coach for men's tennis, joined Vecchio in the report of the Athletics and Recreation Committee, of which he is a member. When asked how UB coaches achieve a balance between athletics and academics, Crispell credited the student-athletes themselves.
"My team's overall GPA was almost always over 3.0. What we found is that idle hands-you know the saying-our kids don't have idle hands," he said. "They are busy. What you'll find is our entire student-athlete body has a GPA higher than the average student here, and a higher graduation rate. I've actually watched kids on the tennis team bring books out to read in between matches so they can study."
Vecchio acknowledged that "with 500 student-athletes, we realize that not all of them are going to pass with flying colors here without some assistance," so Athletics works with them on developing study and time-management skills.
"That's where our focus has been. I think we're doing a good job of recruiting students who want to leave here with degrees," Vecchio said.
Crispell and Vecchio also spoke about the committee's goals that coincide with the ongoing master planning process at UB, including the completion of a 6,000-square foot weight room facility, thanks to the generosity of Robert and Carol Morris.
"We see the difference in our student-athletes already this fall, perhaps most significantly in the football team," Vecchio said.
In the works now is a plan to build a multi-use field house on the North Campus that would include a 100-yard indoor training field, a 300-meter track, a weight room and cardio-workout facility. Also, football staff members would be housed in the building, which would be similar to the University of Akron's athletics center, which is used for community and university events, as well as athletics.
Crispell also discussed the committee's charge to expand on bringing wellness to UB employees via renovated facilities and "a wellness summit" to increase awareness of the need for wellness programs on all three campuses.
In other news, in the wake of the "Open Doors" report of the Institute of International Education that shows UB leading U.S. public research universities in percentage of enrollment by international students, members of the International Strategy Task Group discussed its recommendations for building on this status and further "internationalizing" the university.
The group's report suggests increasing the number and range of international student experiences, including on-campus events and study-abroad opportunities, as well as incorporating internationalism into faculty research and the UB mission. In addition, UB is in a unique position, given its proximity to the international border with Canada, to capitalize on the potential that offers for a host of collaborations with that nation, according to the report.
In response, senators asked about several of the report recommendations, including those that would require all entering students to have a passport and that UB students must participate in international student experiences, something that they said many students may not be interested in or would not be able to afford.
William H. Baumer, professor of philosophy, noted that "too many students are working their way through college" to be able to study abroad, while Debra A. Street, associate professor and director of graduate studies for the Department of Sociology, said she found costs quite high—as much as $12,000 per student—when putting together a proposal for a semester of study in Great Britain.
Crispell suggested that in conjunction with the UB master planning process, the task group also should explore the possibility of creating a "living or meeting facility" for UB international students.