Retention Techniques :

WKU professors can help athletes by keeping an open mind. It might help to know that athletes are held to higher academic standards than are what I call "civilian" students.

At the end of four semesters, an athlete must declare a major. At the end of six semesters, an athlete must have completed 50% of their degree program to be eligible for competition. They must earn at least 24 credit hours per year and they must be enrolled as full time students.

These are just a very few of the NCAA rules that govern student athletes. While we have students who are not as academically serious as they should be, I think we have many more athletes who hold high GPA's and will earn their degrees.

It would help our athletes immensely if they were not judged lacking because they play a particular sport. While I would not ask that athletes be treated better than other students, I would ask that they be treated as well as other students and treated as individuals regardless of their sport affiliation.

Our best tool for retention is a student athlete's will to compete. Instructors should tap into that competitive spirit in the academic classroom.

The key to our high retention rate is undoubtedly the academic services we provide free to each student. We offer tutors in every subject. I hold Athletic Study Hall three nights a week for all freshmen and upperclassmen who have below a 2.0 GPA overall.

Each athlete has an assigned athletic academic advisor in addition to their major/minor advisors. We do grade checks on each student at least twice a semester. We offer all the academic services allowed by NCAA regulations.

The NCAA does have rules that make it mandatory that each school provide academic services to athletes. The extent of that service does remain up to the individual school. Not all schools provide in-house tutors as we do.

Our staff consists of one full-time employee (myself) and five part-time employees. Some schools have only one advisor for all their student-athletes. The only area where Western could be said to be lacking is in our facilities. My tutoring center is much too small, as is our computer lab. That problem will be corrected with the renovation of Diddle Arena. We will have a large area for academics.