In times of crisis, consistency is one of the key factors that keeps the Gossett Student Athlete Center up and running to provide academic support to student-athletes at the University of Maryland. Once the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe and forced universities around the country – including Maryland – to move to an online learning environment, the academic support unit had to adapt to provide a high level of academic support in the new online setting.
The Gossett Center provides key academic support services to student-athletes, including but not limited to academic advising, tutorial, career development, and more. The unit, led by Associate Athletic Director Brady Rourke, supports approximately 500 student-athletes across 20 varsity teams. In its traditional on-campus setting, student-athletes at Maryland are able to get support from the Gossett Center in its location in the XFINITY Center, or in the Gossett Football Team House for football student-athletes.
Though athletic competition has been canceled through the end of the spring semester, academics has continued, and the need for academic support among student-athletes has risen due to the change in setting. Student-athletes have taken advantage of the virtual study halls and the one-on-one tutorial sessions through Zoom because of the transition to online learning.
"Athletics as we know it stopped," Rourke said. "They cancelled competitions and student-athletes we6:re pulled from the field or court. But we didn't. We had to adjust and adapt. Stopping wasn't an option when it came to academic services. Our Gossett Center team had to think differently about how to continue."
The adjustment to online classes posed multiple challenges to the Gossett Student-Athlete Center. The initial challenge was finding a new avenue of communication to provide information to student-athletes. Traditionally student-athletes would see their advisors and learning specialists several times during the week, as opposed to meeting only in a virtual environment now. Applications like Teamworks and Zoom have made the transition easier, and at times preferable to some.
"It's kind of amazing how similar you can make the learning environment operate remotely," Assistant Director / Learning Specialist Erin Brady said. "There's so much technology with apps and websites that you can utilize to simulate an in-person learning environment."
Issues can also arise from access to technology necessary to thrive in a virtual setting. When student-athletes are on campus, everyone has access to the same resources that are provided in Gossett or XFINITY Center. When student-athletes are home, they might not necessarily have all those resources on hand to be successful in an online learning environment. The academic unit is cognizant that student-athletes at Maryland are from a very diverse range of areas, families, and resources, so it's important to find ways to accommodate those in order to enhance their learning experience. That's why Erin Brady, teamed with other Gossett Center and IT staff to spearhead a campaign to provide loaner laptops – and even portable WiFi hotspots – to those in need.
"After the first week of spring break, we sent out a form that asked student-athletes if they had regular access to the internet or access to a device apart from a tablet or a smartphone," Brady said. "From there, we were able to narrow down who needed laptops, or who could utilize their tablets more. Another challenge was textbooks. Students that left for spring break might not have taken home all their textbooks since they weren't planning to be away from campus for so long. We've been able to work together with the student-athletes and find that a lot of publishers have offered free access to e-books through the end of the semester. So we've also helped our student-athletes access those resources and how to navigate the new technology."
Despite all the challenges that the academic unit faced as nearly 500 student-athletes adapted to the virtual setting, the Gossett Center has preached consistency and made it a priority to maintain normalcy in the hectic life of a student-athlete. On campus, in addition to athletic competition, student-athletes balance classes with practice, lifts, treatment, and social life. The schedule that they live came to a sudden halt when competition was canceled and again when classes were moved off campus. For that reason, the academic unit found that their support needed to be that one consistent thing they had despite the new challenges of learning from home.
"The student-athlete's life has completely turned on its head." Learning Specialist Meaghan Hau said. "They went home, they have families, they don't have sports, they don't have lift in the morning. There's complete freedom. So for us, we've tried to be the one consistent thing. For example, when they were on campus and had study hall every day at 9:30, then they can continue to have study hall at 9:30 in an online environment. Our support needs to be consistent in order to meet their academic and career goals despite all the challenges that are coming."
Student-athletes at Maryland – especially those that play spring sports – lost a lot of purpose and meaning when their seasons were canceled. Some teams were in the midst of promising postseason runs. Some teams hadn't gotten into conference play. Some hadn't even officially begun. The devastating blow to those student-athletes altered a sizable portion of their college lives. But as each and every student-athlete at Maryland knows, consistency is key. The academic unit has strived to be that consistent presence in order to continue providing academic support, whether it be via tutorial or another service provided by the Gossett Center.
"Challenges still come weekly and daily," Learning Specialist Andrew Bracken said. "There's always something new, just like in athletics. Something else always comes up, and that's something you just have to roll with."
The adjustments the Gossett Center has made to help provide support to student-athletes is just one of the many successes from the academic unit in this academic year. The fall 2019 departmental cumulative GPA of 3.039 was the best since 2011, while nine individual programs posted semester GPAs of 3.0 or greater. On the individual side, 14 student-athletes earned perfect 4.0 GPAs in the fall and 103 student-athletes earned Dean's List recognition in the fall.
Though traditional on-campus support has always been a successful endeavor, the need for online academic support has been in the making since before the COVID-19 crisis. Now a necessity, online study halls and virtual tutorial rooms could be used as a future option for when student-athletes need academic assistance during travel or are home during breaks.
"I'm so proud of where we are right now," Director of Tutorial Support Sharon Staples said. "This is an advancement for us as a unit, as a department, and as an institution. We've put the power into our young professional staff to do something academically with all the policies and procedures that we uphold of the institution that our student-athletes are fully aware of. As difficult as this time is, we've brought them the same climate, and we are really trying to take it to another level. Our student-athletes asked for this before this time. And now they'll be able to utilize this in this future."
