It’s dark and dingy. There are cobwebs in the corners of the dusty hallways. With no central heat or air, it usurps the outside temperature during the hot and cold months. No, not Villard Hall. It’s the 8,000 square foot crevice between Esslinger Hall and MacArthur Court that student-athlete support services used to call home. @@http://library.uoregon.edu/guides/architecture/oregon/esslinger.html@@
Before the Jaqua Center, Steve Stolp@@http://ssa.uoregon.edu/staff.html@@ and the rest of his support staff were crammed into one of the least desirable buildings on campus. Now they sit in one of the most lavish and aesthetically pleasing tutoring centers in the country.
Stolp — executive director for student-athlete services — has been working in his present role since 1998. With his own degree as a doctorate of education, Stolp works to help student athletes not only stay eligible to play, but also gain a degree. With the move to the Jaqua Center two years ago, Stolp and the rest of the support staff have seen significant improvements in the quality of the tutoring and results of the student athletes.
“The biggest change is the amount of rooms we have here,” Stolp said. “We were able to put in place a program called ‘structured study,’ which means for every hour a student athlete has tutoring or study hall, they’re meeting one-on-one or in a small group whereas in the other facility, we didn’t have the space.’”
Stolp said that working in Esslinger forced support services to make use of old rooms underneath Mac Court when they scheduled one-on-one sessions with athletes. The old system was basically a big study hall crammed from one wall to the other with tutors roaming around to help whoever was brave enough to speak up.
“We are very grateful to have the Jaqua Center because now we can provide services for all 400 student-athletes rather than just what the space would allow us to accommodate in the old building,” said Jennie Leander,@@http://ssa.uoregon.edu/staff.html@@ senior associate director for student-athlete services.
Now, student-athlete support services averages 1,750 appointments per week. It’s a completely reinvented operation thanks to Stolp and the rest of his staff, including approximately 60 student tutors.
Prior to its opening in January 2010, the University of Oregon claimed 47 Academic All-Americans in its 137 year history; the Jaqua Center has helped produce 12 Academic All-Americans in the past three years alone, joining the ranks of those before whose names are laser etched into the wood floors of the Jaqua.
“We’re really trying to help students by providing targeted tutoring rather than just monitor their time in a study hall,” Stolp said.
Stolp himself oversees the academic support, including the advisers and student tutors. He helps the rest of the staff find ways to schedule around the busy lives of student-athletes to make it as easy as possible for them to get in and get their tutoring out of the way.
The amount of time a student-athlete spends in the Jaqua Center is relative to their grade level and grade point average. Freshmen are required to spend up to eight hours per week. For sophomores and upper-level students, there are requirements depending on grade point average, outlining how much time you have to see a tutor.
Former Oregon football player Carson York@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=1550510@@ said that he has enjoyed being part of the transition from the Esslinger study hall to the Jaqua Center because he gets to appreciate how much better the support is for him and his teammates.
“I remember being on my official visit, and they purposely didn’t show me the tutoring center because of how unpleasant it was, and now it’s something that we show off when recruits come to visit,” York said. “We used to get out of study hall and literally run away from there and try and spend as least amount of time there as possible whereas now, it’s a place for people to meet and do work even if they don’t have an appointment.”
Despite showing promise as far as student performance goes, the Jaqua Center has yet to see whether it has made an impact on student-athlete graduation rates. This is because the NCAA defines a student-athlete’s term as a six-year window rather than a four- to five-year window used by state system measurements.
“The jury is still out for populations who started out in this building; they are only in the second and third years of their career here so we’ll wait and see,” Stolp said.