Faculty Mentors for Washington and Lee Athletics Teams

Learn a little bit more about W&L's Faculty Athletic Mentor program from Professor Ellen Mayock, the school's Faculty Athletic Representative, and Professor Jeff Barnett, who serves as the Faculty Athletic Mentor for the baseball team.

Introduction

Over the years, several models of collaboration between Athletics faculty and teams and non-Athletics faculty have developed at Washington and Lee.  Non-coaching faculty have served as unofficial or informal mentors for many different athletics teams.  Athletics faculty, the Dean of the College, and the University Athletics Committee have now formalized this arrangement for all Generals’ athletics teams.  The athletics mentors do not serve as substitutes for the regular academic advising system.
 
Philosophy

Faculty mentors are a group of faculty and staff who are interested in furthering the integration of the student-athlete within the ideals and mission of the University.

Faculty mentors believe that athletics play an integral role in the mission of our University, and that athletic participation is meaningful and valuable, and meets essential needs in the health and development of the whole person – mind, body and spirit.

Faculty mentors provide an additional resource across all areas of the University – faculty, administration, staff, students and coaches – in encouraging and reinforcing the ties between the athletic and academic pursuits of the student-athlete.

Faculty mentors are role models who willingly connect to the student-athletes to provide support through additional counsel and advice when specific issues arise, particularly in the areas of social issues and academics.

Faculty mentors are dedicated to the idea of building a harmonious connection between the academic, athletic and social cultures of our campus.

Role of the Faculty Mentor
 
The mentoring relationship between faculty mentor and team will develop according to the individuals involved.  The faculty mentor could consider some or all of the following as guidelines:
 
• Attend as many matches/games as possible (home and/or away).
• Serve as an informal adviser to team members.
• Collaborate with other faculty mentors and coaches to bring together academics and athletics in more concrete ways.
• Get together with other faculty mentors and coaches approximately once a term.
• Serve as a resource for recruits when they visit campus.
• Get to know parents of student-athletes.
 
Selection of the Faculty Mentor
 
The Chair of the University Athletics Committee (UAC) contacts all varsity coaches to see if they and their teams are interested in having a Faculty Athletics Mentor. The Student-Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC) consults with members of each of the interested teams and generates a list of potential mentors.  The Chair of the UAC then consults with the faculty members and completes the pairings.
 
Additional Items to Consider
 
• There is no prescription for how to be a faculty mentor.  We are mostly looking for faculty members to be a presence in the lives of the team.  This can be accomplished in any number of ways.
• “Adopting” faculty mentors should be entirely voluntary on behalf of the coaches and teams.
• Many coaches and mentors emphasize the “two-way street” beyond faculty mentors’ attendance at games, that is, that coaches are welcome to attend academic classes, while professors are welcome to consider Athletics as a resource for classes (e.g. a statistics class).

Faculty Mentors for Athletics Teams