SU Athletics Department Aim Towards Academic Success!

Recently, over 150 student athletes amongst various sport teams were honored during high school Senior Night as the SU Jaguar basketball team competed against Texas Southern on March 1st, on the campus of Southern University A&M College.
Things seem to be looking up in a major way over the last few semesters for the sports and athletics department, under the meticulous leadership and direction of Athletic Director, Roman Banks.
Over 160 of the current 290 student athletes have prevailed, being nine women and six males, amongst the 15 present sports teams that are all provided to students by the university’s athletics department.
As recently as Fall 2017, there are student athletes remaining above 50 percent for football and above the 75-percentile marking for soccer student rankings in terms of the Dean’s List average.
The Student-Athlete Academic Counseling Center is where academic achievement can be nurtured daily in the lives of student athletes on SU’s campus.
The Academic Counseling Center is located on the first floor of the F.G. Clark Activity Center and is open daily during normal school hours from 8 am to 5 pm.
The counseling center is always ready and available to all student athletes, a place where they can go to unwind and work on the computers or do some homework or study course material in a quiet, settled environment.
The academic center is a place where the students can feel comfortable and not pressured by their peers or the public administration members.
Some of the services offered by the Academic Advisors each semester include registering for classes, determining player eligibility based on NCAA rules, random class checks, meeting with the different coaching staff members, as well as various day-to-day functions when dealing with each sports team and each athlete on an individual basis.
“The athletes have a special responsibility to the institution, so we would like to be the support unit for the athletes, to give them every opportunity to be successful athletes but also successful members of Southern University as a whole,” stated Director of Athletics, Phillip Pinkston.
“We are the bridge between the athletic department and our academic side of campus. We try to be that bridge for all of our student athletes,” conveyed Pinkston. He is one of the main people in charge of helping steer the students on a steady path for success and academic development. Pinkston continues to blaze the trail of athletic achievement by offering an open-door policy to the students and coaches all hours during regular school days.
The academic center is currently located in a space on the first floor of the Mini Dome. However, very soon thanks to a recent land grant received by the NCAA, there will be more space located on SU’s campus that will be provided in place of the current academic center. It will be A place where the student athletes can call their own, geared towards structured academic performance.
“In addition to academic things we do seminars each semester that we try to bring in for our student athletes by partnering with the Center for Undergrad Student Achievement Center to make sure that our students are aware of things going on campus,” also shared Pinkston.
Each advisor that is found in the academic success center is responsible for their individual athletic teams and manages their own sport. All academic advisors branch off with their respective teams and manage their own sport team.
“Giving back to the students is what I enjoy most,” stated football & SU alum, Jonathon Wilson, who is the current Academic Advisor for track and field, cross country, as well as the women’s bowling teams.
SU Academic Services has cultivated a plan in which there are high hopes to execute as well as continuing to push toward academic excellence for SUBR.
To provide the necessary tools possible for students to graduate and be successful, the job is never done, as the coaches and athletic directors work hand in hand in continuing their efforts to push forward and press the mark towards achieving academic success evenly across the board for all incoming and current athletes.
“So long we struggled in academics just whether it be through rules and education, through not adhering the policy, so we struggled for so long with the academic progress rate, so we were able quickly to solve those issues by setting the expectation, formulating some policies, formulating some procedures,” recalls Executive Associate Athletic Director, Trayvean D. Scott.
The athletic department went one year another from three teams being eligible, to ten post season teams, to now all fifteen being eligible and structured evenly.
“The goal was to set expectations, manage them, and provide the resources for student athletes coming into the program,” stated Scott.
The SU athletic department has certainly turned things around and persevered by setting new rules and standards in place to advance the growth rate amongst various sports teams at Southern, as well as the student athletes and their individual athletic abilities, whether in the classroom or outside on the playing field.