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The NCAA News - News and FeaturesJuly 6, 1998 Degree-completion program turns 10
BY GARY T. BROWN The program known more for the gifts it gives than for those it receives turns 10 this year. The NCAA's Degree-Completion Awards program, created in 1988, begins a second decade after giving more than 900 student-athletes a second chance at earning perhaps their most coveted trophy -- a college degree. The program's graduation rate is remarkable. Of the 922 former student-athletes who have accepted the degree-completion awards, 845 (92 percent) have earned their degrees. More than 2,100 applicants have filed for assistance since the NCAA Executive Committee in 1988 set aside funds from the Division I Men's Basketball Championship to help student-athletes who had exhausted their athletics eligibility and institutional aid. That initial donation helped establish the NCAA Foundation, which administers the program through the NCAA Special Degree-Completion Program Consultants, who have distributed more than $4.5 million to worthy candidates to date. "We've helped professional athletes who were injured and on their way down, Heisman trophy winners, people who were going to be juvenile delinquent workers, a 40-year-old bartender, a person with a heart transplant, and on and on," said Don A. Aripoli, vice-president for student affairs at Southwest Missouri State University and chair of the seven-member group of consultants. "The program has allowed us to implement and refine a process to find athletes -- some of whom are guaranteed to be successful by virtue of their backgrounds, grades and what's left to complete, and athletes who are on the bubble but really need a chance to complete their degrees -- and design a program that lets us pick from both pools so that we're using NCAA and Foundation resources to make sure that athletes who didn't complete but gave a great deal to their universities receive a second chance." That second chance has been given to student-athletes representing 200 Division I schools. Degree-completion awards have been granted to athletes in 15 men's and 14 women's sports. The NCAA Foundation currently contributes $650,000 annually to the scholarship program. In addition, AT&T Long Distance has contributed more than $340,000 to date and has pledged approximately $60,000 each year for the next several years. In all, available funds increased to $800,000 for 1997-98 and will bulge to $950,000 in 1998-99. Because of the funding, Aripoli said that award recipients have been able to maintain full scholarships even though they may have been on partial aid when they were competing in school. "Now that they're finishing, we want them to focus on what it is they're all about," he said. "We don't want a job to interfere with a lab assignment or what have you. We've been able to put together something that helps full-time and part-time, and high-risk and low-risk individuals to complete." Unrealized ambition Aripoli, who has chaired the consultants group since its inception, also said the program has been well-received by the schools and in no way has been misconstrued as a fail-safe for schools that are unable to graduate student-athletes "on time." "People understand the stress and visibility that athletes face and they understand the commitment, even in the nonrevenue sports," he said. "Schools recognize that no matter how hard they try or how hard they work, some athletes -- who had to believe they were going to do something more -- sometimes have to come to grips with the fact that they can't or they won't. "It's not a slam at the schools (for not completing)," Aripoli added. "It's recognizing that the hope and ambition that may be unrealized -- that the kid who went to Penn State because he really believed he'd be an all-American linebacker and would play for the Colts tore up his knee. People have understood the reality that often leads to not completing as opposed to saying that the schools did something wrong." The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, is second among Division I schools that have processed the most degree-completion award recipients with 49. Dennis Leblanc, Nebraska's associate director of athletics for student services, has played a role in the success stories of several of those recipients, including 1972 Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Rodgers, who came back to school in 1993. Between Nebraska's consortium program and the degree-completion award, Rodgers now has the degree he came for more than 20 years earlier. "Basically (Rodgers) would tell you he did all the wrong things when he was in school, and seeing him come back at age 40-something and complete a degree was inspirational to a lot of the other athletes," Leblanc said. "He had reached the highest level in college athletics and made a lot of money, then lost it and still felt that the degree was important enough to come back for." Leblanc said Rodgers is a unique story. More often it's the nonstars who think they might be stars who end up needing the most help. "When you're competing in athletics -- especially in sports where you have an opportunity to go on and play professionally -- some kids at the time feel invincible because of the way society puts them on a pedestal," he said. "When they finally determine that they're not going to make it, sometimes they feel like they've lost that window of opportunity because they had that scholarship and threw it all away. Then when they hear of the degree-completion grant, it's like their second chance. That's what so good about it, because then they think, 'Well I threw it all away the first time but I'm definitely not going to throw it away this time.' " Former San Jose State University football player Howard Butler reaped the benefits of the degree-completion award just this May. Carolyn Lewis, an associate director of athletics who helps administer the program at San Jose State, said Butler donned cap and gown for the graduation ceremony, then three hours later donned San Jose's Arena Football League uniform for a home game. Butler, who may test the National Football League free-agent market, also has been offered a research job. "The degree-completion program," Lewis said, "has in essence allowed him to pursue both dreams." Future goals Aripoli is retiring from the consultants group after this year, but the degree-completion awards program won't retire with him. Aripoli said the program is in good hands with incoming chair, Leo W. Munson, assistant vice-chancellor for academic affairs at Texas Christian University. Aripoli said the consultants have developed a formula that works, a scoring and selection process that works and an application process that suits candidates' needs. He said the main thing for the consultants is to remember is to continue a program that is successful but not exclusive. He said he often refers to his own story of applying for a loan for a new house that, for him, puts the program in perspective. "I didn't have a lot of income and I remember the bank officer said to me, 'I probably shouldn't make you this loan but I believe that if I make it you'll pay me, and I also know that as a businessman that if I only make loans that pay I haven't been aggressive enough to help the community,' " Aripoli said. "We need to make sure that in the future we award the students who will complete but that we continuously monitor how we select so that people who probably from an intellectual standpoint shouldn't get the money are somehow woven in to have this last chance of success. If we have a 100 percent graduation rate, we're really not getting to some of the people we need to help."
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