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Targeted Professionals’ Meeting for Athletics Departments

Hosted by Union College on June 17, 2002

Meeting Summary

Hosted by Dr. Gretchel Tyson, the Meeting was the second in a series designed to extend interest in promoting high achievement and satisfaction among students of color.  The Meeting goals were the following:

  • Share information that allows each college to develop an Action Plan for their campus

  • Review “Best Practices” for each area of student support services

  • Potentially develop group projects to allow cross-institutional cooperation

The results of the discussions follow:

How do Athletics Department supports the engagement of Athletes in Academics?

  • Establish a right to know GPA’s (with a responsibility to do something about it)
  • Spend more time and get to know athletes
  • Get the coach to buy into assisting students toward academic
  • Coaches-knowing the resources on campus – (knowing what their boundaries of expertise are)
  • Educate coaches and staff

Obstacles to Recruitment

  • Identifying students
  • Not a lot of students of color in the pool
  • Competition with Division I
  • Finding new pools of Students of Color and being creative in how your recruit
  • Educating recruiters

Obstacles to Retention

  • Not knowing resources
  • What are the perceptions of Students of Color towards Athletes (combine dumb jock stereotypes with stereotypes against students of color)
  • Poor academic achievement

Obstacles to Achievement

  • Cultural environment may be different
  • Financial
  • Peer pressure

What types of Commitment do we need?

  • From entire campus community for non-academic time
  • Money
  • Evaluate departments based on their contributions to students of color…departments need to show their commitments
  • Philosophy should be on the “same page”
  • Community place a high value on what athletes doàacademically & socially
  • Analyze valuesàphilosophy & provide support

What values does the athletics department have?  How are they expressed to students?

  • Higher GPA’s
  • Notion that we put too much emphasis on athletics
  • Need to feed info back to faculty, outreach
  • Academic luncheon for good GPA
  • Athletic/academic newsletter
  • Delphic society at Smith – Athletes w/ GPA of 3.0 or above
  • Athletes of color are in the mix, but no record of GPAs

Goals for Recruitment

  • Increase number of students of color and women
  • Work to be more active

  • Educate coaches and community

  • Outreach programs

Goals for Retention

  • Survey why students stay or leave athletics teams
  • Focus groups – students & coaches create questions for survey
  • Having students take responsibility for retention

Goals for Academic Achievement?

Funding for professional development

Money
Education
Community support
Attending conferences

Strategies

Work with admissions for community outreach departments

Identify community organizations and non-profits to work with and recruit from

Alumni/ae council of color – resources and bring to campus to open a dialog about recruitment strategies

Invite groups of students of color, fraternities, and sororities, with other campus organizations

Attend Yes clinics

Invite Guidance Counselors, local ministers

Do Institutional research

Establish alliance with specific schools

Work with summer scholars program – combine athletics and academic environment, get corporate sponsorship

Develop team clinics away from campus, go to local schools
Do programming on our own campus with student affairs
-leadership skills
-use alum
-combine w/ other campus events.  i.e. multicultural

 What can we do with faculty?

  • Introduce students to faculty
  • Faculty involvement at games
  • Department chair booklet à roster, travel itinerary, practice schedule
  • Athletic directors à giving presentations to student
  • Assist coach of the game – a faculty member
  • Working w/ faculty advisors
  • Increase communications w/ academic deans à making connections with faculty of color

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