Academic Services at the University of Houston aim to support Cougar athletes in their primary goal of earning a degree, while also assisting them to prepare for life after college through career resources and the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program, and broadening their horizons by exposing them to community service opportunities.
Under the direction of the Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Services, Maria Peden, the Student-Athlete Academic Services unit runs a comprehensive program. In addition to Peden, the staff includes five full-time academic counselors, and a Tutoring coordinator and an Outreach/Community Service Coordinator who assist over 350 UH student-athletes in 16 sports. One of the greatest resources available to current Cougar student-athletes is the Academic Center for Excellence (ACE), which is located in the Athletics/Alumni Center.
Open from 8:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. weekdays and 6:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. on Sunday, ACE includes a 28-station computer lab with IBM computers. The computers are updated annually and all have internet access, CD-ROM capabilities and are connected on-line with the M.D. Anderson Library on campus. Each computer is connected to laser printers and includes a wide variety of word processing, spreadsheet, study skills tutorials and career education software packages. A staff of part-time lab monitors ensures that the lab is a productive, efficient resource for student-athletes.
ACE also offers a two 50-person classrooms, five six-person small group study rooms and 16 one-on-one individual tutoring areas. Career and LifeSkills presentations are held each semester in ACE and topics include Sports Nutrition, Drug and Alcohol Education, Time Management and Academic Survival Skills. The Academic Services Staff also conducts a week-long Orientation Program for all incoming student-athletes that covers Compliance, Wellness, Campus Safety and Behavioral Expectations and Career Services. The Department of Athletics also implemented a Mentoring Program that pairs UH student-athletes with Faculty and Staff. The program began in 2004 and involves 20 student-athletes and 17 faculty/staff.
Study hall hours are designated for each team, and all freshmen student-athletes attend mandatory study halls, monitored by the academic counselors. A staff of twenty part-time tutors are available to assist all student-athletes in a variety of subjects and is required for athletes taking Math, English, Political Science and History
Cougar team grade point averages are on the rise and eligibility problems are on the decline because academic success has been a point of emphasis of UH Director of Athletics, Dave Maggard, since he arrived on campus. All student-athletes, coaches and academic services support staff, in conjunction with the UH faculty, share the same commitment for educating and graduating every UH student-athlete who puts on the Red and White Cougar uniform.
The University of Houston student-athletes continue to improve academically. After the fall semester, six of our programs had average grade point averages of 2.70 or above. Forty-four student-athletes were named to the Dean's List, and the average student-athlete passes over 12 credit hours per semester.
The University of Houston celebrated the graduation of almost 50 student-athletes at its annual All-Sports Banquet.
Academic Highlights- As of Fall 2006
- UH student-athletes posted a cumulative grade point average of 2.57 as of Fall 2006.
- The Women's Soccer team attained a team semester GPA of 3.24 which is the highest GPA earned for all UH athletic teams.
- Six student-athletes earned 4.00 semester GPA's for Fall 2006.
- 44 student-athletes made the Dean's List.
- 102 student-athletes achieved a 3.00 GPA or better in the Fall.
- The Most Improved Team GPA's from Fall 2005 to Fall 2006 were Men's Basketball and Softball.
- Sixteen student-athletes were awarded the Conference USA Commissioner's Academic Medal for maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.75.
- Seventy-five student-athletes were selected to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll for maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or better.
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