Center offers services to help student athletes succeed academically
By John Loos Student Intern
Located in what was once the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity house, the Irwin Academic Services Center has fostered its own version of student camaraderie through the extensive educational assistance it provides to the approximately 550 student athletes representing the UI. The center promotes academic excellence, health and wellness issues, community outreach and inter-sport socialization.
“The center [provides] an opportunity for our student athletes to have a place where they can get some productive studying done,” said Tom Michael, the assistant athletic director for academic affairs. “We have computer labs here; they can meet their tutors here; we have academic counselors here. And, it gives an opportunity for athletes to intermingle.” Most of the services the center provides begin with one of its six academic counselors. These counselors are divided up by sport and, along with advising on class choices and basic schedule-shaping, they interact with a student’s departmental adviser, assist them in finding resources on campus, and open up communication lines between the students and their professors. “We’re basically a liaison between the academic departments and advisers and professors,” said Kathy Kaler, a counselor who also serves as the life skills coordinator for the center. “It’s important for those professors to know who (the student athletes) are, that they care about the classes and that they really want to do well.” The center is equipped with 45 computers and several study areas designed to give the student athlete an optimal study environment. There also is a career area with information on companies interested in hiring student athletes as well as information on writing resumes and tips for being interviewed. The center places a strong emphasis on helping student athletes find a career upon graduating, Michael said. While the center opened its doors in 1998, its genesis was in 1995 when the UI, having purchased the old Kappa Alpha Psi house at 402 E. Armory, received a $1.5 million gift from the Irwin Family Foundation intended for the consolidation of all academic services for student athletes. “It’s been unbelievable what kind of support the Irwin Foundation has been able to give this facility and to provide those benefits for the student athletes that put them in a position to be successful,” Michael said.
The center also receives support from the community in the form of professionals who volunteer their time to lead workshops for student athletes. The workshops cover everything from nutrition to time management to financial planning to ballroom dancing or dinner etiquette. Each is designed, through consultation with the student athletes and coaches, to help students learn about a topic that may be pertinent or helpful to them in their post-collegiate careers and lives. There also are workshops for incoming freshman athletes designed to acclimate them to life as a college athlete.
“We’ll cover alcohol and sexual responsibility, budgeting, dealing with the media … anything that we think might help them make a successful transition to the life of a college athlete,” Kaler said. Another unique feature to the center is the 39-member Student Athlete Advisory Board. With representatives from each of the 19 UI sports, the board typically meets once a month and functions as an outlet for discussion of problems and concerns in the life of a student athlete. This is one direct way that the center strives not to create more pressure in the student athletes’ lives, but to make the weighty obligations a student athlete has easier to carry. “There are a lot of demands on the student athletes to begin with and we don’t want to add to that,” said Kaler. “We want to help in their growth and their development while they are here. So it’s really important that they see us as a resource for them as well as to their team in any area.” Not only do the student athletes recognize the center as a helpful resource in their college careers, but they also use it far more than had been envisioned at its inception. Still the size of a basic fraternity house, a structure that generally houses about 50 people, the center must accommodate 550 “members.” This results in study areas and computer terminals filling up rapidly on any night. “We are tight on space right now and that’s a direct reflection of the number of student athletes using the building,” Michael said. “That’s a great problem to have.” One unique and self-created side effect of the extensive use that the center sees is a distinct camaraderie developed between athletes and teams of different sports. Michael, a UI basketball player in the early ’90s, recognizes such opportunities are created by having all of the student athletes’ academic resources under one roof.
“Now student athletes support other student athletes at their events,” he said. “It’s not just your small group of teammates you interact with, now you get to know other people in other sports. And I think that’s as important as anything we provide here.”
