Student Athlete Success Center Yields Significant Results During Inaugural Year

CYPRESS, CA - Cypress College Athletics, with the support of the campus, opened its doors to the Student Athlete Success Center (SASC) last fall in an effort to enhance the conditions that promote student success.

The creation of the SASC was a key goal of the 2014 Physical Education division program review at the time. According to the division Dean, Dr. Richard Rams, "The faculty of the division insisted that we explore and create a mechanism to improve outcomes for our students. With the support of our Athletics Director, Bill Pinkham, our team quickly mobilized and developed a plan to launch a SASC that could immediately and positively impact student athletes."

The SASC, located in the Cypress College Library and Learning Resource Center, became a home base for student athletes to receive academic support services in early October of 2018. The mission of the program is to provide an academic home base for the student athletes at Cypress College, where participation in academic support services will help increase course completion rates and successful transition of student athletes to the next level. The results speak for themselves, as programs including CCCAA State Champion men's golf, along with men's basketball, women's basketball, and women's tennis all saw jumps in their team GPA from spring 2017 to spring 2018.

Student Athletes accounted for 9% of all students who logged time at the Library & Learning Resource Center (LLRC) during the 2017-2018 academic Year, while accounting for less than 2% of the student population. Despite all of the positive outcomes observed during the SASC's inaugural year, there is still plenty of room for improvement in participation, services, and staffing.

"As the conversation on campus shifts toward supporting Guided Pathways and creative interventions to support student success and learning, the SASC will be an important part of this conversation as we seek to scale up, find a permanent facility, and add resources to expand, refine, and adapt this resource to the needs of our athletes," Rams explained.

The SASC is one of many inclusive efforts at Cypress College to help improve academic success for all students. The SASC was ultimately realized through the collaboration and support of campus administration and is yet another example of how Cypress College has continued to address student success while reducing observable achievement gaps among specific groups of students.

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