The status and future of the education and overall experience of student athletes at MSU looks bright, professor of journalism and faculty athletic representative Sue Carter said in an annual Athletic Council report to the University Council Tuesday.
According to the the presentation, the responsibility of the Athletic Council is to be both the deliberative body for academic policies relating to student athletes and intercollegiate, as well as advise the athletic director on policies, procedures and organization relating to intercollegiate athletics.
Tuesday’s presentation was Carter’s chance on behalf of the Athletic Council to demonstrate the work being done at MSU to properly serve and educate the needs of the university’s near 800 student athletes.
As the representative for MSU, Carter’s four main responsibilities include maintaining academic integrity, academics-athletics integration, institutional compliance and control, and maintaining independence from the athletic teams.
For Carter, while she says the learning curve has been huge since taking over the faculty athletic representative position back in May 2014, she is very pleased with the overall level of achievement of student athletes at MSU.
“I’m very impressed with the support services that are available for student athletes,” Carter said. “And as we look at the overall GPA of student athletes it’s higher than the general student population. I think we are cognizant of the fact that we ask a lot of our student athletes ... It’s a half-time job. But I commend them for what they do and for how many make the dean’s list. It’s a lot.”
MSU Provost June Youatt, who has seen questionable practices between coaches and faculty in her days at MSU, said she is very optimistic about the way things have been handled at MSU the past few years, and is very confident that the university can avoid academic fraud scandals such as the instance at the University of North Carolina.
“I think there is a sense on this campus that people really are looking (for academic fraud),” Youatt said. “And some of the changes that have been made over the last few years, (associate athletic director) Jim (Pignataro) and I remember when coaches did go to faculty member’s offices and that doesn’t happen (anymore).”
Youatt also addressed the assumption that student athletes have more pressure put on them because of their status.
“When we reference that sometimes student athletes are held to standards that perhaps other students aren’t, I think that’s probably true ... because we’re so concerned that we don’t veer or we don’t compromise that we’ve been pretty cautious,” Youatt went on to say.
