“I am the teacher of athletes, He that by me spreads a wider breadth than my own proves the width of my own, He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.”
– Walt Whitman
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The Academic-Athletic Fellows are a group of faculty and staff who are committed to strengthening and advancing the student-athlete ideal whilst reinforcing the educational mission of the university. Although collectively serving as a student-athlete support group, individual fellows form an affiliation with a specific team and coach. Their mission is to strengthen and reinforce the ties between a student’s academic and athletic pursuits and act as a resource for the student-athletes, coaches, academic administrators and faculty. The link that the fellows provide between these groups assists in identifying the available resources so that individual student-athletes may receive the appropriate counsel and advice to resolve specific academic and social issues. Fellows will be dedicated to achieving a greater harmony between the academic and athletic cultures, thus assuring that the overall educational mission of the University is enhanced.
The fellows believe that athletic participation is valuable for its own sake – physically, cognitively and socially — and complements the educational purpose, rather than compromising it. Fellows, themselves, are role models who are actively engaged in mentoring the student-athletes in a diverse array of educational and cultural issues, ensuring that the values-based coaching our undergraduates receive on the field of play is consistently reinforced off it. The integration of mind, body, and spirit is a conceptual ideal that the fellows strive to impart to our student-athletes.
Gary D. Walters ’67
Ford Family Director of Athletics
