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November 2007 - SCAC
Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Newsletter
Austin College (submitted by
Laura Ellington)
President - Laura Ellington / Secretary - Carolyn Stone
Austin College SAAC has been busy so far
this season. The organization began its year with the annual ice cream social for
all the student-athletes, an event designed to welcome athletes back to
campus, introduce them to SAAC and encourage bonding among teams. SAAC is
also continuing its “adopt-a-team” program, in which each spring sport
adopts a fall sport and vice versa. During the team’s season, its adopted
team will show support any way it sees fit. This might mean making goody
bags for road trips, decorating the locker room or just being in
attendance at home games. Looking ahead in the year, SAAC will participate
in a phone-a-thon to request donations for athletic enhancement. Also, in
order to promote team bonding and unity among all athletes, SAAC organized
an Inter-team Sports Dodge Ball Tournament in November.
SAAC is also proud to be involved in many service events. It hosted a Saturday Morning Program on campus in
November, where student-athletes acted as role models and played sports
with kids ranging from 4-14. In addition, each team is encouraged to
participate in Austin College’s annual Great Day of
Service. In the spring, SAAC will host another Field Day for elementary
school kids and will be involved in the American Heart Association’s Jump
Rope for Heart Program.
Officers this year include president Laura
Ellington, a senior affiliated with volleyball, and secretary Carolyn
Stone, a freshman softball player.
Birmingham-Southern
College (submitted by Forrest Boughner)
Co-chairs - Forrest Boughner / Casey
Demos
With more active members than
ever in recent memory, the Birmingham-Southern SAAC is off to a good
start for the 2007-2008 year. The BSC SAAC kicked off its event calendar by
participating in the service event “Halloween on the Hilltop.” In this
event, campus organizations set up booths on the Residence Hall quad the
night of Halloween for local elementary schools kids to come and enjoy. To add to the haunted dorm, free food and other game booths, SAAC
participated with a baseball radar booth hosted by the baseball team. “Halloween on the Hilltop” provides a safe environment for neighborhood
kids to partake in trick-or-treating and, with SAAC’s participation,
they got to interact with student athletes.
The SAAC scheduled a faculty breakfast in which each member invites one
faculty guest to breakfast. This allows professors to interact with athletes who care about issues on campus and see who
they are outside of class. While everyone is eating, an actual SAAC meeting will take place so the professors can better
understand what SAAC is all about.
The big event for the Birmingham-Southern SAAC this semester is Southern
Santa. This is another event that aims to bring local kids onto campus
and interact with the athletes. Each team sets up a different booth
with Christmas oriented activities like cookie decoration, ornament
making, face painting and picture-frame making. Santa even puts in an
appearance so kids can get their picture taken with the jolly old elf.
Hendrix College
(submitted by Danny Powell)
The Hendrix College student-athlete
advisory committee got a late start on the 2007-08 academic year, but for
a very good reason as the new Wellness and Athletics Center on campus. So
the Hendrix SAAC got going with some
interesting topics.
A
discussion was held on how the Hendrix WAC is serving students and
student-athletes alike and recommendations from student-athletes as to how
things can be done better. There was a discussion about the current
feasibility study regarding whether or not to add football to the
intercollegiate offerings. Also, a discussion of program assessment and
how the student-athletes can be more involved in program assessment after
each season of competition. Finally, the SAAC took a look at some goals
for the group for the rest of the academic year.
Rhodes College (submitted by
Justin Long)
President - Justin Long /
Vice-President - Katy Joyner / Secretary/Treasurer – Victor Evans
The Rhodes SAAC continues to nominate and select Student-Athletes-of-the-Month during
the academic year.
The Rhodes SAAC also planned and organized
“Novemberfest,” which was a college-wide party and tailgate on the same
day as the Sewanee-Rhodes football game on campus. All sororities,
fraternities and athletics teams came together to help out for this event.
New dining
options are also being reviewed for the recently renovated Lynx Lair on
the Rhodes campus. One option is to
recommend changes to accommodate late varsity practices during the year.
The SAAC has organized a survey to check on an athletic meal plan to aid
this potential change.
Sewanee-University of the
South (submitted by Pratt Paterson)
The Student-Athlete Advisory
Committee (SAAC) at Sewanee has had a busy year! The committee, comprised
of an athlete from each varsity team, fosters communication between
athletic administration, student-athletes and teams, offers feedback and
insight into athletic department issues, generates a student-athlete voice
in the formulation of athletic department policies, builds a sense of
community within the athletics program involving all athletic teams,
encourages active involvement of student-athletes for community service
projects, and promotes a positive image of athletics on campus by
celebrating and generating excitement for our unique community of
high-achieving student-athletes (from the SAAC mission statement).
 So
far for community service this year, the committee has participated in the
Angel Tree Project with the area Department of Human Resources, hosted a
halftime shoot-out at basketball games for a 400 dollar textbook giveaway,
helped generate awareness and raise money at basketball games for the
breast cancer movement on Think Pink night, and helped host Campus of
Champions, which is a major recruiting weekend for Sewanee Athletics.
The group is also working on a code of conduct for all student-athletes
that will establish guidelines for student-athletes so that they may
represent themselves, the school, and their teams in a positive way.
Looking ahead, the SAAC is planning a banquet dinner at the end of April
for all student-athletes, coaches, and faculty to increase the community
bond within the athletic department and to share this with the faculty.
For recent photos from SAAC activities, click the link below:
http://athletics.sewanee.edu/SAACpics
Southwestern University
(submitted by Don Gregory)
The Southwestern University SAAC is
working on Pirates in the Playground Program in which student-athletes go
to local grade schools to run sports clinics for third and fourth graders.
Seniors Jessica Ratcliffe (cross country) and Lauren
Arrowwood (volleyball) have served as coordinators.
The SU SAAC has continued with the Helping Hooks Program. Available
student-athletes help the physical plant crew with set-up for large campus
events. They do anything from setting up tables to breaking down chairs to
moving pew cushions in the SU chapel.
The SU SAAC has started discussion about making a promotional DVD for the
athletics department. It would use video at events such as Parents
Orientation to promote the high quality of our men’s and women’s teams.
Each sport would contribute game clips and still shots of current
student-athletes.
Trinity University (submitted
by Emily Loeffler)
President - Emily Loeffler
The Student Athletic Advisory Committee at
Trinity University has been involved in many different events during the
fall of 2007. We are comprised of four different sub-groups: Community
Service, NSO (new student organization), Campus of Champion, and NCAA
legislation. Each has its own focus and each has made progress during the
semester.
Our community service focus has been
working together with the Komen foundation in a movement called “Campus
for the Cure.” So far we have set up an informative booth about breast
cancer and passed out pamphlets to more than 100 students on our campus.
We plan to have a forum in which we discuss breast cancer awareness and
what each student can do to help with this process. Another event that we
focused on in the community service focus was a Thanksgiving food drive.
Our goal was to collect over 300 canned goods at our last home soccer and
football games. SAAC gave the donations to the San Antonio Food Bank for
the Thanksgiving holiday.
An additional focus is on NSO (New Student
Orientation). Trinity has between 70-80 incoming freshmen that participate
in fall sports. NSO keeps incoming freshmen extremely busy with different
events and tests that must be attended before school starts. SAAC is
trying to work with the members of the NSO committee so that our freshman
that are participating in fall sports will not be overburdened by trying
to rush from practice to the other mandatory events for NSO. We are
setting up meetings with our food service director to locate stands that
are on the way to these events. We are also trying to get events moved or
make them non-mandatory, so our freshman will not be overly stressed
during their first few days as college students.
SAAC is also focusing on the Campus of
Champions weekend at Trinity. Campus of Champions is Trinity’s biggest
recruiting weekend, and is centered on recruits for our athletic teams.
Our primary concern is to keep as many recruits and current
student-athletes on campus instead of going off campus and drinking. The
entire Trinity community will be welcomed to the event. As of now, we are
in the planning stages and are requesting funding so that we can have a
carnival-like event after the basketball games.
Our last focus is on NCAA legislation. SAAC
wants to be on the ball when it comes to the latest news of changes in
NCAA. Our student-athletes are extremely interested in changes coming from
the NCAA. We want to be aware and, most importantly, involved in anything
that will affect our school and the sports that we participate in.
SAAC at Trinity is involved in not only the
athletic aspect of our school, but also in our community. We are trying to
make a difference and to be a role model to the San Antonio community. So
far, we are off to a great start.
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