Each of the 18 sports at Florida A&M University is 100 percent compliant with NCAA requirements, the FAMU athletic department has announced. It was good news to a department that had to report more than 200 violations to the NCAA a little more than a year ago.Among the violations were accusations of ineligible players being allowed to compete and improper conduct by coaches involving a change of grade. But a significant rise in the school’s Academic Progress Rate this year has the athletic department excited about the program’s possibilities.
“They say it isn’t news for a dog to bite man. But this is man biting the dog, so this is news,” Robert Townsend, director of athletics, said.
Last year, 12 teams did not meet the Academic Progress Rate requirements. “We were considered to be at the bottom of the list. This is revolutionary for us,” Townsend said.
Much of the credit for the program’s reemergence was given to five academic advisers who are dedicated to ensuring that the school’s athletes were meeting academic standards. The team of advisers was put together in 2005 and has made a concentrated effort to get FAMU’s student athletes on the right track.
One of the five advisers, Dwanna James, said coming up with a uniform plan to help the students was important. “We had to listen to their needs,” James said.
Staff members said the students adapted well to the adjusted aid they were receiving.
Now that the athletic department has proved itself academically, it has hopes of regaining some of the scholarships from the NCAA that were lost because of previous violations.
As announced last winter, part of the university’s punishment was a reduction in grants and aid to all FAMU sports.
Football was hit hardest, losing 14 grants in all. Six had already been taken away. The rema=ining eight were to be subtracted over the next three years, ending at the conclusion of the 2008-09 season.