Implementing Student-Athlete Programming

A Guide for Supporting College Athletes

Kristina M. Navarro, Lisa Melanie Rubin, Geoff Mamerow

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351743143
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

In Implementing Student-Athlete Programming, scholar-practitioners provide an approachable and comprehensive overview of how to design, implement, and sustain best practices in the growing area of student-athlete development. Exploring research approaches and critical frames for thinking about student-athlete programming while covering topics such as the current context, challenges, programmatic approaches to support, and trends for the future, this resource also highlights programs that are effective in supporting students to success. This book provides higher education practitioners with the tools they need to effectively work with student-athletes to not only transition to college, but to develop meaningful personal, social, career, and leadership development experiences as they prepare for the transition to life after sport.

Chapter One

Introduction, Context, and Chapter Overviews

The purpose of this book is to provide an overview and exploration of programs and practices common to the world of contemporary student-athlete affairs. This burgeoning field continues to evolve and change at all levels of intercollegiate athletics. Initially, athletic departments’ focus was on academic support for student-athletes as the need arose. College sport governing bodies increased academic regulations for athletic participation, and as the rules became more complex, supporting athletes in their navigation of the academic rigor in college while balancing their role as athletes required intentional resources for this student population.

However, given the extraordinary challenges that student-athletes face while balancing the dual roles of student and athlete in college, student-athlete development (also known as “life skills”) became an important addition, whether in programming or through hiring additional staff in student-athlete support services units. As campuses have added facilities specifically to serve student-athletes in these endeavors, an expansion of resources, staff, and programming has become prevalent in the field, especially among institutions that have sizeable athletic budgets. Athletic departments already utilize their facilities, resources, and staff in recruiting student-athletes to their institutions, so more support for student development and academics is certainly a selling point, especially to their parents.

This is an exciting time for student-athlete services professionals and those seeking to enter the field. As more need arises, departments will expand and look for talents in a variety of student development areas, including leadership development, career development, personal enhancement, mental health and well-being, diversity and inclusion, and learning strategies, among others. The hub of professional development for this field is the N4A. Initially, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) hosted its own professional development for the life skills/student-athlete development area for its member institutions, and other governing bodies mentioned in Chapter 2 have their own approaches. In 2015, the NCAA transitioned that charge to N4A, and that has led to specific tracks at its national conference and a Professional Development Institute (PDI) on student-athlete development, with trained faculty, who are practitioners and experts in the field (Leach, 2015). Its curriculum and core competencies are discussed further in Chapter 8.

There is often a disconnect between student affairs professionals on campus and student-athlete services professionals, regardless of where they are housed. Many student-athlete support staff feel misunderstood by other parts of campus, and even by athletic administrators as to what their role is or what their responsibilities are to students and the athletic department (Rubin & Moreno-Pardo, 2018). It is critical, as this field continues to grow, that cross-campus collaboration take place to engage professionals from campus with student-athlete support staff, to prevent burnout. Intercollegiate athletics in itself is a stressful place to work with intense pressures, and burnout can affect talented professionals that institutions hope to retain (Rubin & Moreno-Pardo, 2018). Examples of collaboration are presented in Chapter 5, which shares models at three NCAA institutions in divisions I, II, and III.

There are so many approaches to offering student-athlete support on college campuses, whether housed in athletics or in academic affairs/under the provost’s office, or in another administrative area. There is no one model practice, and resources are not uniform across campuses, even within the same athletic conference or across peer institutions. Some units have one person on staff to support hundreds of student-athletes, and others have 20 to support a similar number. There is definitely no one-size-fits-all design of student-athlete services in any category of athletic program or institution type. What is key for growth and success aside from campus collaboration is the connection between professionals who work in this field through networking, involvement in N4A (the premier professional organization), and targeted professional development.

To fulfill our purpose, this book includes: (a) explanation of the current context of athletics within higher education, including NCAA governance structures and the role athletic departments play in mediating student-athletes’ experiences in college; (b) discussion of the challenges educational and developmental challenges student-athletes face within and as a result of that context; (c) in-depth description and illustration of the many varied programmatic approaches institutions and their athletic departments take to effectively support their student-athletes; (d) presentation of several illustrative cases studies exploring student-athlete programming in practice, including a model Division I comprehensive athletics program at the University of Nebraska, a model Division II athletics program focused on campus collaboration at West Chester University, and a model Division III athletics program focused on the high-impact Leadership Academy program at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UW-Whitewater); (e) description of, and a guide to assessing the effectiveness of student-athlete support programs; (f) presentation of an additional case study focused on strategic partnerships developed by Rutgers University’s athletic department; and (g) identification and discussion of trends and implications to monitor for the future of supporting student-athletes through programming in higher education.

The genesis of this book is rooted in our experiences studying and developing programs to support student success in general and the unique population of student-athletes in particular. As scholars and practitioners, we are always searching for new ideas, research, and inspiration for what we do to support the students we work with as professionals. In our search for new materials and innovative practices to support our work, it became clear how few resources exist to guide the growing number of professionals working in student-athlete support. While student affairs units have proliferated recently, the specific group of practitioners focusing on student-athletes has grown over the last few decades, because student-athletes as a population on college campuses have increasingly been identified as having common sets of characteristics, factors, or experiences that put them at risk for several negative outcomes in higher education. These professionals are the most diverse staff within athletic departments, and bring a richness of talent, experience, and perspectives to the development of innovative programs that support student-athletes and their college experience (NCAA, 2019).

In response to the growing need, institutions have sought to develop programs that address distinctive challenges faced by student-athletes, and there has been great diversity in their approaches, as well as the effectiveness and impact of those approaches for students, athletic departments, and institutions as a whole. Our aim in this book is to shed light on a range of topics by explaining the student-athlete context, discussing factors that affect that context, and then both describing and comparing programs that support them.

Along the way, we will analyze these programs to reveal practices that are both theoretically sound, but also tested in practice. In so doing, we hope to offer ideas about how to successfully design, implement, and sustain similar programs with an emphasis on high impact. To further unpack these concepts, this book will take an in-depth look at how athletic departments can assess the effectiveness of these programs and best support contemporary student-athletes for life after intercollegiate sport. We endeavor that each chapter can provide a point of departure for the aspiring practitioner within the world of student-athlete support programming. Each chapter starts with a broad view, then narrows in focus to explore and discuss issues that are critical to the practice of student affairs in athletic departments and other units that support student-athletes.

Chapter 2, Contemporary Context of Athletics in Higher Education, provides the reader with a high-level overview of governance in intercollegiate athletics. It reviews the role of sport governing bodies such as the NCAA, athletic governance structures, the contemporary divisions and conference organizations, and provides explanations of how those governing bodies and structures co-exist with institutions of higher education. Where appropriate, it recounts the history and development of these relationships to provide the context necessary to extrapolate trends in what is a constantly developing field. The chapter also discusses the increasing involvement of student-athletes in the governance of the structures and organization in which they operate, as well as their growing influence and power in decision-making that impacts their education and competition. Finally, it covers recent developments in conference realignment, the impact that the development of student-athlete support programming and athletic departments have had on colleges and universities, as well as the role(s) athletic departments play in mediating the complex rules and relationships between governance bodies, institutions, and their student-athletes.

The purpose of Chapter 3, The Student-Athlete Experience: Opportunities and Challenges, is to provide an in-depth review of the scholarly literature documenting the student-athlete experience in college. This chapter reviews single and multi-institution studies exploring the many challenges student-athletes face, in particular those related to time demands and pressure to perform. In addition to painting a picture of the common and distinctive characteristics of the student-athlete experience, it discusses and dispels myths about student-athletes as well. Drawing on both historical and contemporary research, the chapter describes internal and external barriers to personal and career development student-athletes often experience, as well as institutional practices that impact many student-athletes today, such as academic and social isolation, and other academic policies and practices including clustering. It considers the changing generation of student-athletes from Millennials and their challenges to those of Generation Z. The chapter concludes by introducing and discussing several relevant theoretical frameworks derived from research into the student-athlete experiences that are of particular salience as they are frequently drawn upon, not only to guide current research on student-athletes, but to inform the development of programming meant to address or mediate the risk factors student-athletes experience.

Chapter 4, Programs That Support Student-Athletes, introduces and provides in-depth discussion of institutional approaches to developing and administering academic support programming designed to support student-athletes’ needs, as well as the fast-growing student-athlete development focus in athletics. It discusses several specific, illustrative program models, including discussion of their roots in the scholarship on student-athletes and their roots in models of student-athlete cognitive and psychosocial development. The chapter includes examples from a range of different institutions, including mission-driven institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and further compares and contrasts common types of programs offered across divisions. The chapter concludes with consideration of the physical spaces and constructed environments that have come to define the “sense of place” in which student-athletes spend their time living and working out their roles as students and athletes.

Chapter 5, Program Models in Divisions: Case Studies at Division I, II, and III Institutions, presents three case studies wrought as comprehensive descriptions of how a Division I, II, and III institution each deliver student-athlete support programming on their campuses. The first model features the program and approach at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and includes in-depth discussion of the history and origin of Nebraska’s approach to holistic programming, including how it is currently administered, its signature practices, budgetary and staffing considerations, and outcomes.

The chapter also provides a Division II case study focusing on West Chester University (WCU) and its approach to delivering high-quality, high-value programming. In particular, the case study focuses on WCU’s collaborative approach to supporting academic excellence, an approach that leverages a range of campus programs in service to providing academic support for student-athletes.

Finally, the chapter outlines a comprehensive athletic programming approach from the Division III level, by describing the Warhawk Leadership Academy at UW-Whitewater. The program demonstrates a powerful approach to cultivating leadership skills in student-athletes, while also illustrating how practitioners can tether programming to the literature and scholarship on student-athlete development. The program exemplifies data-driven practices to best help students develop leadership skills and succeed in college. The chapter also includes introductory information on program evaluation, as well as guidelines for beginning to develop similar programming at other institutions.

Chapter 6, Assessment and Data-Driven Practices in Intercollegiate Athletics, provides a basic primer for the practice of assessment of programming in intercollegiate athletics. It begins by orienting the reader to assessment, its purpose, rationales, and potential then briefly explores examples of assessment reports published in the literature. The bulk of the chapter explores the individual steps in an assessment plan as applied to a fictitious leadership development program designed to support student-athletes. The chapter is designed to serve as a guide and resource for practitioners attempting to design assessment plans for their own programming, in their own contexts, and with their own distinctive student...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter One Introduction, Context, and Chapter Overviews
• Chapter Two Contemporary Context of Athletics in Higher Education
• Chapter Three The Student-Athlete Experience: Opportunities and Challenges
• Chapter Four Programs That Support Student-Athletes
• Chapter Five Program Models Across Divisions: Case Studies at Division I, II, and III Institutions
• Chapter Six Assessment and Data-Driven Practices in Intercollegiate Athletics
• Chapter Seven Cross-Program Collaboration and Strategic Partnerships: Evolving Models of Strategic Partnership and Inter-Program Collaboration in Athletics
• Chapter Eight The Future of Student-Athlete Development
• Index