A team of Ashland University faculty, staff and athletic members created a revised athletic team practice policy to better the academic experiences of student athletes.

The committee, consisting of ten individuals, met over the summer to discuss potential changes that could be made to the preexisting practice policy to make sure it reflected the current state of athletics at AU.

Dr. Mitchell Metzger, faculty athletic representative and member of the committee, discussed the process and why changes needed to be made.

“In 2008, the then-Faculty Athletic Representative, who was Mark Hamilton of the Philosophy Department, got together with different constituencies on campus and put together this policy or [perhaps] edited a previous policy designed to carve out a time during the day that athletics could practice without course conflicts,” Metzger explained. “Over those years, we went from 14 or 15 athletic teams to now 24 athletic teams.”

Due to the growth of athletic teams and the number of student athletes, 710 as of this semester, the committee was formed this past summer to revisit the past policy to make tweaks to the policy from 2008.

Some tweaks in the revision include morning athletic team practices ending by 8:45 a.m., afternoon practices being scheduled between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. and evening classes not beginning until 6:30 p.m.

Dean of eAshland Shawn Orr commented on the importance of these changes.

“It’s important to understand that the NCAA says that students may not miss class for an athletic practice including coming late or leaving early,” Orr said. “So it’s important that athletics and academics are a team in making sure that athletics are part of [student’s] growth experience as a young person, but we remember that they’re a student first, not an athlete.”

The tweaks to the athletic team practice policy will work with student accessibility and ensure that course conflicts occur as little as possible. With the ever-changing athletic program at AU, however, the tweaks might have to be looked over again in the future.

Elizabeth Hoge, director of academic support for athletics and a lead member of the committee, discussed future plans for the policy.

“We plan to make this a continual review process to make sure we’re upholding the policy and making changes as needed,” Hoge noted. “It helps to provide structure to the practice schedule. We want our athletes to be able to take their required courses to complete their degree and we want them to have set practice times.”