University of Connecticut

PRESIDENT’S ATHLETIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING

February 20, 2005

Members Present; Nancy Rodriguez, Mark Boyer, Larry Gramling, Ron Taylor, Gaye Tuchman, Paul Young, Jeff Hathaway, Bruce Cohen, Janet Williams, Joel Legare, John Saddlemire, Skip Lowe,Wilder, Lin Klien, Dan Blume, Rob Hoskin, Susan Spiggle, Scott Brown, Bill Schults, Frank Wunschel, Mike Zito, Carol Polifroni

Minutes from the Jan 26, 2005 meeting were approved.

Report from Student Life sub-committee

The PAAC SAAC lunch will be rescheduled because of a low RSVP rate. The Subcommittee is requesting the PAAC executive Committee to address the issue of the ownership of the PAAC Website and who will be Webmaster.

Report from the Faculty-Staff relations sub-commitee

The sub-committee will have their first reception on Feb 24. PAAC executive committee will address the issue of website ownership.

Report from the Athletic Director

The NCSA are recognizing universities’ efforts in bringing back former athletes to complete their degrees. UConn has been lauded for its efforts here. CPIA has helped with the funding.

One of UConn’s basketball athletes was put in a very difficult situation during a game – but he has done a laudable job while issuing an apology to fans. He was provoked by opposing fans and responded emotionally. He is an excellent student athlete and a model citizen. The provocation and the reaction were unfortunate, but the athlete and the University reacted promptly.

CPIA Panel Discussion

Eight CPIA (note I will add counselors names) counselors provided remarks and answered questions. Bruce Cohen provided an overview of its activities. This is CPIA’s 20^th year having been developed from a task force recommendations in 1985. The CPIA does not report to the Athletic Department, but to the Provost. This structure helps CPIA not compromise students’ academic integrity and permits CPIA to offer counseling to student-athletes regardless of their sport. This separation from the Athletic Department is very important. But the Athletics Department and CPIA are in close contact and both help students make the transition to college academics and help prepare them for life after sports. Former athletes also help the CPIA with this effort. CPIA members work closely with every department on campus. They provide guidance to students and help them integrate into campus.

Some of the biggest challenges the CPIA faces are double practices, significant weekday travel, the amount of pressure put on conditioning, and lack of priority registration for student athletes.. These issues make scheduling classes difficult, and many students have no option but to miss classes. The CPIA is developing learning group programs with teams and sponsoring independent studies to train the learning group leaders.

CPIA counselors briefed the committee on what they do, shared experiences, issues and concerns about their jobs. Some of the key points discussed were:

- Recruiting begins in late Nov – early Feb. CPIA holds recruiting weekends and gives a presentation to recruits over Saturday. They bring advisors from various areas of interest – talk about students’ interests, plans of study. They run a two day academic orientation, where advisors come and familiarize themselves with students.

- One of the biggest challenges CPIA faces is getting students tested for learning disabilities. The NCAA contributes to this testing.

- Coaches meet with students for academics. They praised Coach Edsel’s commitment to academics. He also started an alumni career network of former players.

- The community service coach works with career fairs. He facilitates discussion between freshmen, sophomores and alumni who are interested in business.

- Key issues CPIA faces in helping students graduate from the university are: fatigue—energy management; distractions, such as requests for interviews, and agents. Students are vulnerable to falling prey to agents’ promises of fame and money post graduation. CPIA tries to construct the students’ last year in a way that helps them plug back in and finish their degree.

- CPIA also runs the tutoring program, where counselors recruit tutors by asking professors for referrals. Currently CPIA has a great group of 80 tutors, with each one having proven knowledge in certain subjects.

- CPIA advises students on NCAA rules, helps them understand what requirements are with NCAA standards; helps with registration, problem solving around practice session. CPIA also meets with high-risk students on a weekly basis, making sure they stay on top of academic work. They also help students with the process of seeking permission for taking exams while traveling in competition and proctoring exams.

- CPIA also works with athletes’ families helping them understand the importance of education. In some cases students are so involved with their sport, that it becomes their comfort zone, and they find it difficult to adapt in academics.

- CPIA serves as a general resource for student-athletes.

- Currently testing for learning disabilities is outsourced requiring three weeks to get test results back. It would be very beneficial to hire a learning disabilities specialist here on campus.

- Summer school courses are very valuable fro student athletes in making their degree progress, but the course offerings are woefully inadequate.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:45pm