The Charlatan - Mar 10, 2005

        Varsity athletes make the grade
        All-star basketball players say study hall is ‘motivating’
        by Matt Graveline

          Eligibility for varsity teams means staying in school and different 
        varsity teams take different approaches to making sure that their 
        players stay smart so they can stay on the team, says Erin Currie, 
        varsity administrator.

        The Carleton women’s swim team uses academic advisors to make sure that 
        its swimmers stay on track. Swimmer Amy Pouliot says she used the 
        service two different times. 
        "They helped me map out what courses I should take," says Pouliot.
        Academic advisors are supposed to be mandatory for first-year athletes 
        to make sure they stay eligible and to allow them "to do what they came 
        here to do," says Currie.

        The defending national champion men’s basketball team takes a different 
        approach to making sure their athletes stay smart and able to play. Head 
        coach Dave Smart has all his first-year players attend mandatory study 
        hall in Renfrew House, considered the varsity study hall. 
        Osvaldo Jeanty, a star guard for the team, remembers his first year. 
        "My experience was good, it’s a nice quiet place where you get to 
        study." 

        Jeanty still uses the hall to study to keep up his grades.
        "It’s motivating in a way that you have to be there," says Jeanty.
        As Jeanty confesses, "study hall is the reason a lot of us are still 
        playing." 

        Yet Currie says this year has been harder to track first-year students’ 
        use of the services. 

        The normal academic advisor went on maternity leave halfway through the 
        year and didn’t submit a final list.

        Kristin Smith of the swim team is one of the first-year athletes that 
        slipped through the cracks. 
        "I didn’t end up going, I didn’t end up finding the time," says Smith. 
        Although she was unable to make her appointment, she says the year was 
        not too bad so far. 

        Despite the setback, Currie will be doing the audit of all varsity 
        players in May, having previously done one in January. 
        To help those students in trouble she will set them up with tutors so 
        they will be be able to stay on the team.