Rules of the game | Unpaid professionals | Stretched thin | Time, money and resources | Choosing a major

The University spends about $3,500 on every student for academic support and student services each year. Athletics spends an additional $1.6 million annually for increased student support services for student athletes — another $3,000 for each person.

The money supplied by Athletics pays for academic and eligibility counseling, leadership opportunities, personal development programs, nutritional and psychological counseling and tutoring services available only to athletes, all free of charge.

From the moment student athletes first commit to KU, they are sheltered in the exclusive bubble of the Kansas Athletics Department.

The first order of business is to meet with an academic counselor in Athletics. Because athletes miss an average of three to 10 days for travel each semester, counselors help them to enroll in classes and find professors who will work best with their schedules.

Student athletes enroll just after honors students but before the rest of the student body to give them the first choice and ensure their class schedules fall in line with predetermined practice schedules.

Counselors go through course syllabi with them and help set up a planner outlining due dates for papers, exam times, practice times and game schedules for the rest of the semester. As freshmen, student-athletes continue to meet with their academic counselors once a week.

About 75 percent of student athletes use the tutoring services provided by Athletics. During the Fall 2008 semester, the program provided 397 student athletes with 1,663 free tutoring sessions, according to the University’s assessment of the Athletics Department, which was released in March 2009. That number averages to about four tutoring sessions every week for each athlete who participated.

Of the 30,000 students at the University, 738 paid for tutoring this semester through one of the three main services on campus that are independent of specific departments. They are the Academic Achievement and Access Center, Supportive Educational Services and the Students Obtaining Academic Resources program.

Brittany Vaughn, a December graduate from Overland Park, has been a tutor for applied behavioral science and psychology with Athletics for the last four semesters. She usually works with the women’s basketball team, but has also tutored track and field athletes in the past. She said the motivation level varies among the athletes she works with.

“I don’t think any of them are dumb at all. I think a lot of them would just prefer not to have to do the work,” she said.

She said all tutors had regular meetings with Athletics officials and were very clearly told what does and does not constitute academic fraud. Tutors are not allowed to provide answers, write papers, or even type or print materials for student athletes.

Vaughn said athletes don’t seem to feel entitled to free help simply because they are athletes. Instead, she said motivating them to put more effort into their schoolwork is a challenge when many of them lack confidence in their academic abilities.

“I think a lot of them do come in with the attitude that this isn’t for me and I’m just going to play basketball, and either I can’t do it or I’m not going to,” she said. “And that’s unfortunate for them because they’re lucky enough to have this chance.”

To ensure that athletes stay motivated enough to attend classes, some of them are required by their counselors to check in with staff members outside classrooms. These students are usually freshmen or students who have shown a need for it based on school performance or personal issues.

Don Gardner, who works as a class checker standing outside classrooms to make sure athletes attend, said it was usually football and basketball players who were most frequently checked, though Paul Buskirk, associate athletics director for academic success, said this was because there were more football players than any other type of athlete. He said counselors did not choose who to check based on which sport they played.

The class-checking program began within the last 10 years at the request of coaches, Buskirk said.

Bruce Guy, another class checker, said, “The coaches have their own agenda in mind. They’re covering their own rear. I mean, they’ve gotta get the kids into class and they’ve gotta get them to graduate or it hurts the program.”

Rules of the game | Unpaid professionals | Stretched thin | Time, money and resources | Choosing a major

— Edited by Sarah Kelly