Last November, in the wake of a highly critical series of articles in the Ann Arbor News about the University of Michigan’s approach to academics in athletics, the faculty senate created a committee to study the problems. This winter, the Athlete Academic Advising Committee (AAAC) returned with several wide-ranging recommendations to restructure the way Michigan student-athletes pursue their educational careers.

“We need to provide an environment that allows students and student-athletes to achieve at their highest level,” says Ed Rothman, Professor of Statistics and Chair of the AAAC. “Once students are admitted to the university, we want to make sure they succeed.”

In the current system, the university has an Academic Performance Committee (APC) to advise the provost on academic eligibility for individual student-athletes whose GPA meets NCAA requirements but falls below the university’s required 2.0. At its January meeting, the senate approved Rothman’s first motion, 29-1, which proposed that each school within the university make its own recommendation on student-athlete academic eligibility standards, as it does for non-student-athletes, which would then be forwarded to the provost for a decision.

In a parallel motion, the senate voted 19-11 to discontinue funding travel, accommodations, and expenses for APC members to attend football bowl games. The senate’s two recommendations have been sent to the provost, who will ultimately decide whether or not to follow the advice, and is under no deadline to respond.

Other proposals, which have not been voted on yet, include:

• Increasing faculty oversight on the general studies bachelor’s degree, which is popular among student-athletes, and requiring students in general studies to receive written faculty approval for their individual courses of study.

• Reassigning management of the athletic department’s Academic Success Program to the dean’s office.

• Expanding the university’s Summer Bridge Program to allow more student-athletes to participate.

“The ideas we’ve come up with are quite reasonable, and I’ve checked them with the provost’s office and Athletic Director Bill Martin,” says Rothman. “It’s all in the provost’s hands now.”