Focusing on the 'Student' in 'Student-Athlete'

Focusing on the 'Student' in 'Student-Athlete'
Academic services helps Baylor athletes 'make the grade.'

March 9, 2001

Editor's Note: Articles such as this one by Larry Little appear in each edition of the Baylor Bear Insider Report, available upon membership in the Baylor Bear Foundation. For information on joining the Bear Foundation, click here.

There are not too many cases in athletics that finishing first is not the objective. However, in Don Riley's case, that is just the case.

Riley is the coordinator of the Office of Academic Development Services for Student-Athletes at Baylor. He and his office are "responsible for the academic welfare and support of the schools' student-athletes, both scholarship and non-scholarship, in all 17 varsity sports," according to the office's mission statement.

Included in this support are many features that can prove very beneficial to a student-athlete: advising, degree planning, counseling, study halls, tutoring, performance review and life skills training.

Riley, who is the assigned advisor for men's basketball, track and cross country, is joined by Melanie Smith (baseball, women's golf, men's tennis, softball, volleyball) and Pat Saiz (women's basketball, men's golf, soccer, women's tennis). The final two members of the team, responsible for football, are Dr. Joel Porter and James Jarmon, themselves former Baylor gridiron warriors.

And this team has produced results. In a recent NCAA report, Baylor University finished first among Big 12 Conference schools in graduation rates for student-athletes. Baylor's 74-percent mark for the 2000 report ranked well ahead of any other school in the conference and 16 percentage points higher than the national average.

THE REPORT, conducted annually since 1991, computes a school's graduation rate for student-athletes who enrolled six years prior. In other words, when a student-athlete enrolls, he or she is given five years to complete four years of athletic eligibility and six years to complete his or her degree.

Therefore, the 2000 report reflects the graduation rate of those student-athletes who entered college in the 1993-94 school year.

Baylor has posted a student-athlete graduation rate of at least 53 percent every year since the report began in 1991. In the 2000 report, Baylor enjoyed its best graduation success in that time. The 74 percent for student-athletes is a 10-percent jump from last year's school record. It is also seven percentage points higher than the school's overall graduation rate during the same window of 67 percent.

And as if that were not enough, Baylor ranks first in the Big 12, followed distantly by Iowa State (66 percent), Texas A&M (63 percent) and Nebraska (60 percent).

THE FIRST PLACE FINISH in the conference is not what makes Riley smile, though. Instead, it's the simple fact that student-athletes at Baylor are graduating.

"We are truly not in competition," Riley said of the academic counseling services at the 12 conference institutions. "Every good idea we have we share with the other schools and vice versa. They've really helped us and we try to do what we can to help them. This is not a competition."

So much so that Riley admits that if Baylor's 74-percent graduation rate ranked 10th in the conference instead of first, that would be just fine.

"It doesn't happen to be that way, but you're right," he said. "We always want to be above the national average. Our other goal is to be first or close to the top in the Big 12. Historically we are along with Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa State. But the important thing is helping these student-athletes get an education, and the more schools that can do that, the better."

Student-athletes are greeted with information about the office's services from day one. Recruits are introduced to Riley and his staff early in their visits, and that is some- thing parents love. But athletes are not the only students in the athletic department that benefit. Every student -- student managers, student trainers, etc. -- can utilize the Office of Academic Development Services.

However, the one part of this process that is not a part of the athletic department is Academic Development Services. Housed in Robinson Tower, the office is completely separate from athletics, and that is something Riley sees as a plus.

"In my mind, that gives us more credibility," he said. "My position is not associated with the athletics department, I'm not an assistant AD. We have close communication with everyone in the athletics department, but that separation provides credibility with the faculty."

Nine of the 12 schools in the Big 12 have academic service centers within the athletics department.

"I'm not saying it can't be done," Riley said. "But I think this is the best way to do it."

Riley pointed to several cases where a professor has called him and asked what to do with a student-athlete who is not making the grades.

"I ask that professor, 'What would you do if it was a regular student?' They tell me they would fail that regular student, and I tell them that's what they have to do with the student-athlete," Riley said. "But I always point out to the professor that it doesn't take a call to me. That's not why we're here."

Instead, the staff at ADS is there to help student-athletes get an education. And part of that process is a strong staff of tutors headed by supervisor Bart Byrd.

"I think the main reason for our success is Bart and the tutors," Riley said. "Sure, it takes us to do it, too, but it all starts there."

There is the Neill Morris Learning Center, open 71 hours each week and providing individual and small-group tutoring services. And coaches have a part in the process, as well. Should a coach notice a student-athlete struggling in his or her studies, the coach can request tutoring help for that student-athlete.

Along with his or her sport's assigned ADS counselor, a coach can also establish the amount of hours a student-athlete is required to attend study hall. All first-year student-athletes are required to attend a minimum number of hours.

Another aspect of the duties of the ADS staff is monitoring class attendance. According to Baylor policy, a student must attend at least 75 percent of his or her classes, otherwise that student will automatically fail.

But according to Riley, it is rare that he and his staff have to hound student-athletes about going to class or about succeeding at all. In fact, he said the cornerstone of the success that Baylor student-athletes have enjoyed in the classroom is the student-athletes themselves.

"First and foremost the student-athletes have to buy into what we're doing -- and that's help them get an education," he said. "We tell them, 'We're here to help you help yourself.' And we've been very fortunate that the coaches buy into it as well."

Riley talked of stories he's heard at other schools where a coach will call the academic services director and demand that a student-athlete be "pushed through."

"That doesn't happen here," Riley said. "We are not going to have that happen."

But he pointed out that there are several groups of people responsible for the academic success of Baylor's student-athletes -- the faculty, the tutors at the NMLC and his own staff.

"We're a team," he said. "We've had turnover since I've been here, so there are even people to thank that are not here anymore. Credit goes to a lot of people."

While finishing first, competing with other schools, is not the objective of the Office of Academic Development Services, helping the student-athletes receive an education and a diploma is the objective. And to that end, Riley and his staff are succeeding.

In the 1996-97 school year, Baylor graduated 10 student-athletes. That was Riley's first year at the helm of the operation. The following year, 34 student-athletes graduated. And in the past two years, 140 student-athletes have graduated ? 69 in 1998-99 and 71 in 1999-2000. Both of those last two numbers were school records.

In all, 206 student-athletes have graduated in Riley's tenure. But they are not reaching the end without success along the journey. In the 1999-2000 school year 69 Baylor student-athletes were named to Big 12 academic all-conference teams. Last fall, 172 earned Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll recognition.

The underlying theme is that success breeds success, and Riley sees the relationship between the classroom and the playing field.

"If they succeed academically, they will usually succeed athletically," he said. "It doesn't always happen that way, but one thing is for sure. If a student-athlete does not succeed academically, that student-athlete will not have a chance to succeed athletically."