Director named for student athlete academic support program

After two years of restructuring academic support for student athletes in response to an NCAA investigation, administrators think they are getting closer to a more efficient system.

Michelle Brown was named Monday as the new director for the University’s Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes — tasked with the responsibility of overseeing the entire program. A committee conducted a national search to select Brown, who will come from a similar position at Florida Atlantic University.

The program is currently part of the Center for Student Success and Academic Counseling but will move to the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost when Brown takes the position on May 6.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to work with student athletes, faculty and administration,” she said. “As a former student athlete, academics are important to me.”

The academic support program provides athletes with tutoring, along with other networks such as the first-year transition program and career counseling.

The University’s mentor program was disbanded in 2011 after a part-time academic mentor provided football players with illegal academic assistance in 2008 and 2009. Since then, the support program has been revamped.

Bobbi Owen, senior associate dean for undergraduate education, said the University started hiring less undergraduate tutors.

“Undergraduate students have enormous capability and ability to do really effective tutoring,” she said.

“But in this case it seemed like having graduate students, full-time professionals and public school teachers would not only provide help with content but with also the science of learning,” she added.

Owen said the tutoring program is led by Susan Maloy, the tutorial coordinator, which is a position created a year ago. Her job includes training the tutors to follow NCAA rules.

“Having somebody who wakes up in the morning and goes to bed at night focused on tutors seemed like a good position to create and fill,” Owen said.

Maloy said revenue sports teams — football and basketball — use the program the most, but any varsity athlete can utilize its resources.

She said the program employs about 58 tutors, who are paid $16 per hour and work about 10 hours per week.

Maloy said the program’s budget is funded by athletics revenues. The 2012-13 tutoring budget is $404,585.

She added that tutor coordinators are becoming more common nationally as a way to centralize tutoring programs.

Maloy said the program’s efficiency is measured by how athletes view its services.

“The goal of the program is not for students to make certain grades, but for students to develop a mastery of the subject matter while learning study strategies,” she said.

Brown said she will observe the program before she makes any plans for its future.

“The pieces are already in place, but my job is making things come together and taking a look with a fresh eye,” she said.

Contact the desk editor at university@dailytarheel.com.