Communications
Academic Services, Athletics Guides Student-Athletes to Graduation
March 2021
鈥淪omeone is always around with a helping hand and motivating me to do better in classes. The consistent positivity is a valuable resource to us,鈥� said Tyrone Barber, a football student-athlete.
Academic Services, Athletics provides academic support services for the University of South 91社区鈥檚 nearly 450 athletes across 19 different sports. Ensuring students achieve their academic goals and prepare for their post-graduate careers is what makes this department such a valuable resource to student athletes.
Located in the Fishman Family Student-Athlete Enrichment Center at the Selmon Athletics Center, Academic Services is housed in the same facility where student-athletes train, receive medical treatment/rehab services, enabling them to effectively manage their time and take advantage of support resources available to them. Here students have convenient access to study space, tutoring assistance, advising, and general support before or after sports related activities.
The program monitors student adherence to the American Athletic Conference (AAC) academic standards and regulations, ensuring they remain as full-time students, meet GPA guidelines, and achieve progress towards degree benchmarks. Student-athletes receive assistance meeting and communicating with coaches/administration regarding academics and support with academic success plans for their individual needs.
Student-athletes meet with their college academic advisor like other students. Academic Services assists student-athletes with scheduling and degree planning, attempting to minimize conflicts with athletics practice, travel, and planning for a timely graduation in-line with their academic goals.
Academic Services is also involved in recruiting FTIC and transfer students, often meeting with prospective student-athletes and parents, and guiding students in eligibility requirements before they are accepted into USF.
Football student-athlete, Demaurez Bellamy said, 鈥淲ithout the support of the Student Learning Services team, I would not have made it this far in my student-athlete career.鈥�
For student-athletes who require more intensive learning assistance, the Student Learning Services Program within Academic Services, provides one-on-one and small group support to student-athletes with learning and/or behavioral challenges or disabilities. Student-athletes receive the appropriate support, accommodations, and academic skills to guide their academic success.
The unit oversees The IGNITE Summer Bridge Program is a six-week transitional program for incoming FTIC student-athletes. Programming targets five different areas of student development including academic excellence, personal development, leadership, community engagement and self-efficacy. The program hosts a dynamic speaker series and culminates with a group community service opportunity providing early engagement and service with a local community partner or project.
Since 2017, the office has a direct reporting line to Undergraduate Studies and a dotted line reporting to Athletics. The staff includes a director/associate athletics director, 6 academic coordinators, one learning specialist, seven post-graduate interns and close to 50 undergraduate and graduate tutors.
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