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UNM Basketball player Tony Snell studies at the Student Advisement Center on South Campus. Athletics Advisement has nearly four times more advisers per student than any other nonprofessional college at UNM. Student-athletes also enjoy easier access to a number of student services.

Fewer students, more advice

Athletes reap the benefits of improved advisement

The Athletics Department has almost four times more advisers per student than UNM undergraduate degree-granting colleges, and athletes enjoy access to clinical psychologists, learning specialists and student services.

Compared to the College of Education’s 350-to-1 undergraduate student-to-adviser ratio, student-athletes have a 90-to-1 ratio.

Because of this, said Henry Villegas, manager of Academic Advising, student-athletes get more one-on-one time with advisers compared to traditional students.

“They get a chance to work with students from their freshman year till the end,” he said. “I think that’s critical to developing relationships. They know a lot more about the students’ lives.”

Teams are an assigned an adviser, and those advisers have copies of student-athletes’ syllabi to make sure he or she is on top of assignments, homework and tests. About four years ago, Villegas said, the Athletics Department decided student-athletes needed more support.

Built on south campus in 2008, the Student Success Center — which houses the Lobo Center for Student-Athlete Success — gives student-athletes access to tutors, a clinical psychologist and a learning specialist.

Villegas said athletes have access to tutors from 6 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday. The center closes at 5 p.m. on Fridays, and tutors are available Sundays from 6-9:30 p.m.

Villegas said the center has a psychologist available because in the past, a student-athlete committed suicide, and others left UNM because of personal problems.

Non-athletes can study at the center, but they don’t have access to the psychologist, advisers or the learning specialist, Villegas said.

“(Athletes) come here with baggage, so she is here to help athletes deal with the variety of psychological issues that are affecting them,” he said.

Student-athletes can also rent laptops to use while traveling with their team, and mentors help them develop life skills, such as time management and test-taking.

With more access to advisement, Villegas said, student-athletes’ GPAs increased.

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“We have a number of teams, such as men’s cross country, swimming and golf, that have perfect scores and are recognized every year by the NCAA,” Villegas said.

If student-athletes don’t maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher, he said, they have to go to study hall hours each week.

Professor Marie Lobo, a member of the Faculty Senate Athletics Council, is writing a report for the NCAA to show the academic support UNM offers its student athletes. Lobo said the report serves as oversight to ensure UNM meets NCAA academic requirements. She said the report includes interviews from campus departments and looks to identify whether student-athletes get special treatment.

“We interviewed people from the Provost’s Office, CAPS, Athletics and from admissions to look at ‘Do athletes get special treatment?’ and we added faculty to this. …We know that there are faculty on campus that no matter what an athlete does, they don’t support college athletics.”

Not only do student-athletes have advisement support, but Lobo said coaches emphasize academics to their players.

“You can see the turnaround in graduation rates,” she said. “UNM had the lowest graduation rate and the lowest GPA in all Division I basketball. That has totally turned around under coach (Steve) Alford.”

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