Study Sessions Keep Up Athletes' GPAs at Tennessee State

By Jessica L. Simmons
Black College Wire

In the 2002-03 school year, Tennessee State University�s athletes graduated with a 2.8 grade point average, compared with an average 2.7 GPA for student non-athletes, according to Sean Page, athletic academic adviser.

In 2000-01, student athletes graduated with a 2.8 GPA compared with a 2.6 for student non-athletes. According to Page, that was the same year that Tennessee State won its first Ohio Valley Conference banner, an award the conference gives to an institution that outscored other Tennessee Board of Regents schools in GPAs.

Photo credit: mstateathletics. com Sharon Allen

�The athletics department holds study sessions, and I hold my own private study session,� said Sharon Allen, new women�s head basketball coach. �Every coach at TSU was a student athlete at some time, so I think we all understand the importance of education.�

Students must attend study sessions their freshman year, and if they fall below a 2.5 GPA after their first year, they must continue with the study sessions on a regular basis. Allen holds study sessions for the women on the basketball team no matter what GPA they have, and this is required study time for all women.

All athletes are required by the NCAA to maintain 12 course hours per semester after declaring a major in order to be eligible for scholarships. However, the Tennessee State athletics department requires 15 hours, according to Page.

Students must fill out an �academic check,� a progress report informing their coaches about their grades, quizzes, homework assignments and whether they went to class. Page, who is also in charge of monitoring the athletes� progress, said that reports are turned in to him every three to four weeks and are all that is required of students unless the student isn�t meeting requirements in a subject. In that case, Page recommends an academic plan and advises the student to meet with a tutor.

�Athletes should operate under the same [study] hours as non-athletic students,� said Tamara Anthony, a junior from Little Rock, Ark., with a double major in political science and Africana studies.

Student athletes have the same library and computer lab resources available to them as other students and must juggle practice, homework, study sessions or maybe even jobs. Athletic director Teresa Phillips contends that the athletics department tries to be careful in treating its student athletes like every other student.

�We try to encourage them to go into fields that they want to go into,� Phillips said. �Their whole purpose for being here is to be a student . . .�

The 2003 NCAA Graduation Rates Report revealed that 46 percent of student athletes graduated from TSU in 1997, compared with 47 percent of student non-athletes.

In 1996, the NCAA began tracking all students and student athletes who received athletics aid from their college or university during their entering year.

According to Maria DeJulio, research contractor with the NCAA, reports are published every year, however there is a six-year time frame for graduation.

The latest information was released over the summer, based on entering freshmen of 1996. Those students had six years, or until August 2002, to obtain their degree. The next report is to be released in summer 2004 or early fall.

�Our goal is to graduate all students that matriculate TSU,� Phillips said.

�The criteria that is put on students is so great (that) sometimes I think they are too challenged for what they are trying to do.�

Jessica L. Simmons, a student at Tennessee State University, writes for The Meter.

Posted Dec. 15, 2003