STUDENT-ATHLETE SUCCESS SERVICES
SASS Staff | Flight Plan
SASS Address
480 Bartow Ave.
Kennesaw, GA 30144
Suite 4625
Mail drop 4806
The Kennesaw State University Student-Athlete Success Services (SASS) center staff is dedicated to providing excellent academic support for all student-athletes while they are pursuing their degree, and ensures compliance with NCAA rules pertaining to academic eligibility. Students are surrounded with comprehensive academic support which helps them to be successful and balance the demands of being a student-athlete. Located in the newest building on the Kennesaw campus, SASS is centrally located to provide excellent access to needed resources for student-athletes. The Academic Learning Center (ALC) also houses classrooms, advising offices, Career Services, The SMART tutoring center and supplemental instruction as well as Department of Global Affairs and the KSU Journey Honors college.
SASS PURPOSE STATEMENT
Empower student-athletes to be invested and engaged in their learning and to teach them to confidently transition to life after sports.
SASS TUTORING SERVICES
SASS offers free tutoring for all student-athletes. This is a great benefit that we encourage students to take advantage of, because of the demands that are often placed on them. Tutoring may be one time, weekly, or bi-weekly to help our students with supplemental instruction. Whether students need help with a difficult concept in math, or help to improve their writing style, the tutors are trained to assist students and become better informed learners.
SASS is located on the 4th floor of the ALC building, directly across from the SMART center and Supplemental Instruction. This provides additional academic support resources to be readily available to our student-athletes.
ACADEMIC ADVISING
The Athletic Advising staff is available to help undeclared student-athletes select their courses, and also can help students learn more about the more than 90 undergraduate and 75 graduate degrees in a vast array of fields. We are focused on vocation, and helping students identify their passion. We also are the point of contact between athletics and faculty, and work to maintain a positive relationship with campus. The SASS staff also provides documentation for athletic travel events to professors, which are counted as excused absences.
ELIGIBILITY MONITORING
We also have a comprehensive process to monitor our student-athletes academic progress throughout the semester. Many students are in our STAR mentoring program (Students Taking Academic Responsibility) and meet weekly with one of our academic advising staff. These meetings help students get organized, stay on top of assignments and learn specific study strategies. In addition, we send out progress reports 4 times a semester to ask for professors' feedback on how all student-athletes are doing in their course. This helps us target our efforts to help students succeed.
LEARNING SUPPORT
SASS has a comprehensive learning support program, lead by the Director of Learning Services, and serves all student-athletes who may have documented learning disabilities or a need for additional intensive academic support. This may include improving study skills, organization or time management skills, or other success strategies for our students. Additionally student-athletes have the opportunity to meet weekly with an academic assistant to help them balance their academic responsibilities and develop skills to help them be effective learners. We also assist those students with IEP's or academic deficiencies to ensure they are registered with the Disabilities Services office.
FACILITIES
Student-Athlete Success Services operates out of two facilities. The SASS Suite is located at the Academic Learning Center in the heart of the KSU Campus. This modern instructional suite provides a number of spaces for student athletes to study. We also have a technology table with computers for use and access to a printer in the SASS Suite. We have several private tutoring bays as well as the staff offices. The SASS Suite shares the 4th Floor of the ALC building with the SMART Center and Supplemental Instruction academic resource services. It is conveniently located across from the Student Center, The Commons dining hall and centrally located to most of the dormitories.
Football student-athletes utilize space in the football suite which includes the SASS staff for football and a computer lab, as well as study rooms in the facility. This provides a convenient environment for our football student-athletes to manage their academic responsibilities while also being close to the coaches and team meeting rooms.
PRIORITY REGISTRATION
Priority Registration is given to student-athletes at KSU in order to accommodate travel and practice times. This is a great benefit for student-athletes that helps make the challenge of balancing academics and athletics easier. Student-athletes are able to register early and get the courses they need to avoid practice and travel conflicts.
STUDENT-ATHLETE RECOGNITION
Student-athletes work hard both on the field and in the classroom, so we want to make sure they are recognized for their achievements. We make sure our student-athletes are nominated for recognition and awards for local, conference, regional, and national awards. Our teams have continuously performed well in the classroom, consistently earning above a 3.0 GPA. They have been recognized numerous times by the Atlantic Sun conference for their academic excellence. Each spring semester we recognize all of our Top Flight Owls, or those who earn above a 3.0 GPA. This regularly includes over 50% of our student-athletes who have succeeded in the classroom.
FLIGHTPLAN
The FlightPlan is a comprehensive program designed to help support and prepare our student-athletes to be champions in life and preparing for life after sports. The FlightPlan incorporates 4 elements:
CAREER READINESS – Internships, workshops, job experience
ACADEMIC SUPPORT – honors, awards, recognition
HEALTH AND WELLNESS – Nutrition, mental health, well-being
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT – community service, team building, habitudes
You can learn more about our FLIGHTPLAN and how you can be engaged with our student-athletes as well.
