You can probably spot most student-athletes on a college campus. At the University of South Carolina just look for the people draped in Under Armour shirts, sweatpants and hoodies. They will be rushing around campus from place to place just trying to be on time.
“Weekends are really the only time that I have to myself and just Saturday at that,” says Gabrielle (Gabby) Brassard, a freshman member of the equestrian team.
She tousles her hair to tie it off as she clenches a pencil between her teeth. Her face is happy but drawn. The type of face that is screaming out for sleep but is not getting much of it.
“I have practice and weightlifting three days a week. And on the days that I have practice, I have to plan an extra hour or so to drive to the barn since it isn’t close. Then I have to drive back to get to study hall. It can take four hours out of my afternoon.”
Study hall is in the Dodie Anderson Academic Enrichment Center. Brassard, like most freshman athletes, is required to attend.
While student-athletes don’t jump for joy over study hall at 1302 Heyward St. they recognize its importance. The building provides student-athletes with a perfect place to focus on studying without the distractions of home. Even student-athletes no longer required to attend study hall often themselves there.
Nakita Gray transferred from North Carolina A&T to USC, to compete in the high jump, halfway through her college career. She was impressed with the difference in the amount of academic attention given to student-athletes.
“I wasn’t required to come to study hall for years but I still was in there every night with a tutor or a mentor,” says Gray, a May 2017 graduate of USC. “It was one of those things I appreciated a lot after I left.”
Gray recognizes how much the enrichment center helped her on her way to graduate. Being able to meet and talk with her advisor any day that she wanted was a security blanket. And anytime she needed a tutor all she had to do was ask.
The Dodie, as most students call it, is named for Dolores F. Anderson, an elderly benefactor from Greer, South Carolina. Anderson donated $6 million of the building’s $13.5 million to the construction cost.
According to the Jan. 31, 2010 article in The State newspaper, Anderson asked then-athletic director Eric Hyman what head football coach Steve Spurrier needed most and his response was an academic building.
The building opened in January 2010 at 40,500 square feet. According to the official USC website, it features three computer labs, a full-service kitchen, dining room, 20 tutor rooms, 21 offices, seminar rooms and two study lounges. USC administrators visited other athletic academic centers in the South to get an idea of what they wanted in the design of the Dodie.
“We went to schools from the SEC East and West. And we went to Clemson,” says Raymond Harrison, former USC director of life skills. “I really liked Alabama’s center. They renovated their old football dorm.”
Harrison, new N.C. State University associate athletic director, says strong academic enrichment programs and well-equipped facilities are central to student-athletes maintaining strong grade point averages and graduating.
Not everyone sees the athletic centers as money well spent. Brennan Doherty, a staff writer for The Daily Tar Heel and former sports editor of The Daily Gamecock, cautions against equating as evidence that athletic buildings correlate with smarter student-athletes.
“It’s window dressing in some ways. It’s easy for specific schools to present themselves well academically if they want to. A lot of the metrics that they use are not worth very much, like APR. In some ways, these large complexes also really isolate athletes from the rest of the student population on campus. I mean, yes, you can have classes with them, but with the creation of buildings like the Dodie and 650 Lincoln, you rarely interact with a student-athlete.”
APR or academic progress rate is a measure implemented by the NCAA in 2003. It was a part of large academic reforms attempting to hold schools more accountable. It is a team based metric accounting for student-athlete retention and progress each term. The criticism with APR is that it is not a comparable statistic between schools.
“I’d say it’s flawed because it only includes students that receive financial aid for athletics,” says Doherty. “Not all varsity athletes get money, especially in sports that don’t make money.”
According to the Sept. 25, 2010 article in The Post & Courier, athletes used to study with the rest of the students in the library or in their dorm. But in 1991 Clemson built Vickery Hall, designed specifically for the use of student-athletes. Since that point, the construction of similar buildings has seen an uptick on major college campuses, especially the ones that focus heavily on athletics.
At USC, athletes can seem especially isolated. The opening of 650 Lincoln, a university housing complex where many student-athletes increases that.
“We just have completely different schedules from other students,” says Brassard, the USC equestrian. “I like living in 650 because we go to bed early during the week and if I lived in a regular dorm it might be loud a lot of nights with people going out and I just could not deal with that.”
While these buildings have popped up quickly for large schools, mid-level and smaller institutions lag behind. Doherty says that one reason for this could be the large price tag that comes with these buildings. $13.5 million to build a study hall is money that smaller schools just do not have, considering it impacts such a small amount of the student body.
While some student-athletes at smaller schools may wish they could have facilities like the Dodie, not all do. Zach Edgar, a sophomore offensive lineman at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, is happy with his experience.
“I don’t like being singled out, so I wouldn’t like that. But at Centre, I’m just another student who just happens to play football too. It would be weird to only see other athletes. I think it’d make it a lot easier to study, but I’m thankful for what we’ve got.”
Whether large facilities like the Dodie are successful in preparing student-athletes for their post-graduate endeavors is a question that cannot be answered by statistics. Raymond Harrison certainly believes they do. The Academic Support Program for Student-Athletes at N.C. State is similar to the Dodie’s program. According to the Sept. 28, 2017 article in The News & Observer, N.C. State is also constructing a boutique dormitory for athletes similar to 650 Lincoln to better streamline their schedules.
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