The Balance
Balancing academics and athletics for the collegiate student-athlete
Interviews From the Experts
The balance between academics and athletics in college can be tough to accomplish. That is why The University of Pittsburgh is one school in which part of their athletic department devotes its resources to student-athletes' success by holding students accountable and providing help academically as well as providing opportunities for students beyond education in their professional careers. I conducted interviews from two men in the Pitt athletic department that cover these aspects to see what they had to say.
Music
Music
Demetreus Darden
Academic Counselor for football
and men's track and field
Penny Semaia
Assistant Athletic Director
for Student Life
Seeing as his position title contains, “Life Skills,” I generically asked Penny what the Life Skills Program is:
The athletic department aims to help the student-athlete at Pitt in two ways outside of the athletic world. This includes the present, or what the student-athlete deals with now, academically, and also includes the future, or what opportunities the student-athlete could achieve in a profession after college. The Life Skills Program aims to target mainly the latter but uses its resources to also encourage the student-athlete in their present academic endeavor. Knowing this, I asked, to what extent, does the Life Skills program deal with academics?
Student-athletes have an extraordinary duty when compared to the regular student in college. They dedicate at least 15 practice hours of their week, depending on their sport, and as much as the NCAA maximum of 20 “mandatory” practice hours per week. The word, “mandatory” allows for the idea of non-mandatory practice hours that extend well beyond 20 hours which is a very common occurence in many of the team-oriented sports. Any given day may consist of multiple practices, strength and conditioning sessions, and other meetings. As is the title of this interview project, I was curious to understand how the Life Skills program approached the balance of athletics with academics, if at all.
The NCAA has information on its site that breaks down the graduation rates of any particular sport of any particular college. These rates are only up to year 2006 but may give a good representation of how student-athletes perform academically today. According to that chart, about 20% of student-athletes do not graduate from college and less than 1% of student-athletes even make it to becoming a professional in their sport. I asked Penny whether he deals with those student-athletes that do not graduate.
In narrowing the previous interview question of dealing with student-athletes that do not graduate, I decided to inquire about those student-athletes that do not end up as a professional in their sport and, frankly, fail out of college and what their future might look like.
Every program has to start somewhere and Penny was an integral part in the start of the Life Skills program. Here, he explains the initial development and support of the Life Skills program.
Through my four years as a varsity student-athlete at Pitt, I have been well aware of the programs and meetings that have been created through the Life Skills program, as I was one to participate in several of them. As a personal note, I think the athletic department at Pitt has done a great job creating functions through the Life Skills program that benefit student-athletes. However, I wondered, is Pitt exclusive in this initiative or do other schools give their student-athletes the same support?
Part of succeeding is preparing for the future. Not only that, but I have had experience in seeing Penny in the hallway and always enjoyed saying a quick hello. I wondered to what extent Penny sits with student-athletes and talks about future plans after graduation. (Even after this question, and subsequently, the interview, he discussed some possible connections he might have for me as I look into the job market!)
Balancing the schedule of a student-athlete is like a puzzle. Not only does a student-athlete have an academic counselor, he/she also has a counselor in the athletic department. These counselors sift through academic schedules and sport schedules to find the best possible situation to accommodate both. I asked Demetreus generally what the department is that he works in and some of the services that it provides to help student-athletes through these schedules.
For a freshman student-athlete, the idea of juggling two large aspects of college, achieving a major and training in a highly competitive realm of sports, can be daunting. In the transition from high school to college, a student-athlete has to deal with a significant increase in time commitment to both academics and athletics and many times need support to get the gears going to be more self-sufficient and efficient before being let go to do it all on their own. In light of this, Demetreus explains what the Academic Support Services does for these incoming student-athletes.
From my experience walking through the Academic Support Services room, I know some of the areas that I am quite familiar with. While walking down the hall from the lobby, to the left is the computer lab and to the right are some of the tutoring rooms. The hallway empties out into a large room filled with desks and chairs, a place for student-athletes to study. At the end of that room, is a section that shows the letters that spell out “Writing Center.” To the left of that room was an open section filled with plush chairs with little desk plates attached to them, facing a whiteboard. In my years as a student-athlete, I have never used those resources and was never familiar with that part of the Academic Support Services. My curiosity led me to ask Demetreus what exactly happened in those sections and why.
There is academic accountability for the student-athlete. That accountability comes from both the school itself and also from the NCAA. Demetreus told me a little bit about the academic requirements that he has seen from experience.
A question followed after the question above: what happens during academic probation? More specifically, what does the Academic Support Services do for the student-athlete that is in trouble academically?
At the end of our interview, Demetreus chimed in without being prodded with a question. This was a pleasant surprise, as I did not think to bring up the topic initially. The relationship between the counselors and the coaches is a communication that must be as open as possible. Demetreus goes on to discuss this relationship: