STUDENT-ATHLETE
STUDENT-ATHLETE
West Virginia University offers a variety of services and programs to help student-athletes maximize their academic potential. Department staff members work with coaches, on campus student service providers and faculty to help student-athletes meet the unique demands of the classroom, the sporting arena and the personal-social challenges they face as developing adults. While many of the headlines center around the Mountaineers’ accomplishments on the water, WVU athletes have also made some noteworthy strides in the classroom. To help its student athletes achieve academic success, one of the nation’s finest facilities resides in the WVU Coliseum – The Athletic Academic Performance Center. The 8,000-square foot facility provides individual and group study areas, a plethora of computer stations and the latest in fingerprint technology used when signing in. WVU’s combined varsity athletic teams have an Academic Progress Rate (APR) score of 974. For the 2013-14 academic year, West Virginia had seven teams with a perfect 1,000: gymnastics, rowing, women’s basketball, cross country, rifle, tennis and women’s swimming and diving. In addition, the WVU rowing and gymnastics teams received public recognition by the NCAA for its latest multiyear APR scores. The two teams posted multiyear APRs in the top 10 percent of all squads in each sport. The APR is based upon eligibility and retention of student-athletes on a semester-by-semester basis and is an assessment of real-time academic success. The results of the fall and spring semesters, in a
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ROWING
given year, are calculated as that year’s APR score and averaged with the respective scores from the previous three years to provide a four-year (multi-year) snapshot of academic achievement. Following the 2014-15 season, 20 Mountaineers earned All-Big 12 Academic honors. Nineteen Mountaineers earned Academic All-Big 12 First Team honors, while one WVU student-athlete landed on the Academic All-Big 12 Second Team. Six members of the rowing squad also were named National Scholar Athletes by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) for the 2015 season. The group was comprised of Elizabeth Duarte, Kelly Kramer, Alisha Brownfield, Emily Deming, Madison James and Louisa Morgan. In addition, the rowing team averaged a 3.34 GPA throughout the 2015 spring semester. Eleven members were named to the President’s List, while 12 landed on the Dean’s List. Also of note, former rower Alexandra Basil was a recipient of the Dr. Gerald Lage Academic Achievement Award, the conference’s highest academic honor. The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) provides a forum for the “voice of the studentathlete” on WVU’s campus. SAAC membership provides feedback to administration about how to better WVU athletic programs. They offer input on the rules, regulations and policies that affect student-athletes’ lives on NCAA member institution campuses.