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UW to force freshmen athletes to score life skills
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The University of Wisconsin said Wednesday it will begin a mandatory program this fall to acclimate freshman athletes to life in college and beyond.
The Life Skills Academy will require all UW freshman athletes from every sport to attend six sessions spread throughout the year geared toward improving their abilities to handle the transition from high school to a more independent lifestyle.
Assistant Athletic Director Doug Tiedt said student athletes, like all other students, face challenges they have never faced before in their life during their first year at college.
“There’s a lot of things that are changing,” Tiedt said. “You’re living on your own, responsible for your own activities.”
According to Kelli Richards, UW life skills coordinator, the university has run similar programming for the last four or five years, but it has been optional for all athletes.
Richards said while the program topics are not yet finalized, the topic of academic success will definitely be on the list. She said this will include discussions about academic misconduct, time management and study skills.
She added she will “make sure we touch on bigger issues” like alcohol, sexual assault and proper nutrition.
The largest change between the old program and the new one is the use of peer leaders, according to Richards.
She said 35 student athletes, sophomores through seniors, have agreed to take the training and be group leaders to help guide the freshmen through the program and their first year of college.
Tiedt said the positive side of this program is “killing two birds with one stone” because, not only do the freshmen learn life skills, but the older students learn leadership abilities that will help them after school is over.
The freshman program will consist of six sessions spread throughout the entire academic year, Richards said.
The first half of each program will be led by an expert on each topic, and the second half will be spent in small groups led by the peer leaders.
According to Tiedt, the sessions will be spread throughout the year because it will be more effective than having one long orientation session like UW Student Orientation and Registration in which students reach a point that they can no longer pay attention to what is being said.
Richards said the new program will not require any additional funding from the UW athletic department. It will only require a change in how their money is spent.
“In past years we’ve had one speaker all student athletes have to see, but now we’re not having that anymore,” Richards said.
The program will also require athletes to participate in groups with athletes from other sports, Tiedt said.
“This is very important because so much time is spent with their own teammates,” Tiedt said. “We felt it was important to get students to meet with students from different sports to get a different perspective.”
Richards added group leadership training will begin for the peer leaders in the next couple of weeks.
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Can this be made available to all students? It seems like this would be helpful to everyone.
Previous people have said that student athletes are given special treatment and the administration claims this is not true. This new program is just that…special treatment for athletes. While it would be very improbable to require all incoming students to take the course I think the University should open it to all students. Athletes should not be given special treatment so they can be kept at the University to help give us a good name. It’s not fair to the students that have to pay all of their tuition to not be able to have the same services (content and ease of access wise) that athletes receive.
You’re right a program like this would probably be beneficial to all students, but to justify not providing this to student-athletes because it could be classified as “special treatment” is obsured. The fact that the Athletic Department is prioritizing acclimating student-athletes to college life, should be commended and maybe the University should take a look at the program and consider offering it to the entire student body. The Athletic Department is given a budget to use as they see fit to promote the mission of the University, what better way than through a program like this. I guess no matter what Athletics spends their money on, someone is going to cry “special treatment”. I’d like you to travel for hours to represent your University in competition, get home at 2:00 a.m. and be be in class at 8:00 a.m., not to mention the rest of your classes, practice, weight training, conditioning, rehabilitation, etc. Oh and don’t forget that if athletes don’t graduate (i.e. graduation rates and APR) the media will gladly make a mockery of you and the NCAA will gladly penalize your team. But, you’re right athletes shouldn’t be provided services to acheive academically and personally. Give me a break.