The challenge of managing academic side of USC sports with a pandemic, empty campus
The suddenness of the change is what made it so challenging.
The University of South Carolina has more than 500 student-athletes. Every one of them is getting used to remote learning. They’re getting used to a much less structured environment, managing an academic load from home without the support staff right there.
And it all came around with no warning.
“I think about it. They left for spring break with no books, some left laptops, thinking they were coming back, and to find out, you know, everything still left in their room,” said Maria Hickman, South Carolina’s senior associate athletics director who oversees academics.
Her staff had to quickly come up with a plan, adjust to operating without the normal face-to-face interactions. It requires a lot of video conferencing through Zoom and a good deal of coordination.
She made clear the challenge facing the athletes she works with isn’t much different from that of the thousands of regular students who are also getting used to the new arrangements.
Overall, South Carolina’s academic operation includes eight advisors, an assistant AD, five full-time learning specialists and a group of tutors and academic coaches. They’re working with athletes across the country and even across the world, though Hickman said there had not been any international challenges with the new arrangement.
The close relationships staff and students have allowed for a smooth transition, she said.
“It’s not like there’s something new,” Hickman said. “They’re not above the system because now we’re asking them to do something that’s a little different. That relationship was already built.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean daily conversations, but they were working through advisement last week, which meant student-athletes speaking to major advisors, academic advisors and getting things in place for coming terms. That said, athletes have to report back and some are tracked a little closer.
“We have a small number of students that we’re talking to daily,” Hickman said. “And they know they have to report back to the advisor at a certain time and report grades and that kind of stuff. And so we’re still having that communication, we’re still communicating with our coaches and giving them updates. So we’re still functioning the same way, it looks a little different, just at a smaller scale.”
Football coach Will Muschamp said he’s been pleased with the way his players adapted and have handled the shift.
He has more than 100 players, most from the Southeast. Around 10 who are rehabbing after injuries are still on campus even if their academic staff is not.
“I’ve been really proud of our guys handling this new way of doing things academically,” Muschamp said, crediting academic staffer Katie Christensen. “When you step into something you’ve never done before, you don’t ever know how it’s gonna go. And our academic people have been so pleased at how our players have materially handled the situation.”
The coach also noted he was pleased the school went to a pass/fail system and noted online learning is easier for some than others.
It helps overall that the student-athletes are tech savvy, sometimes more so than those overseeing things. They can still meet with tutors for learning specialists face-to-face. The transition and structure have been somewhat different, but the services the academic staff offers are mostly the same but a bit more limited.
Hickman admits she misses being around students. Everyone — staff, her, the students — are all separated, moving forward in a fractured environment and trying to finish things out.
“I will say that our student-athletes are very competitive on the field and off the field,” Hickman said. “So that also means in the classroom, and they also are, they want to finish what they started.”
