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Academic Success/Student Services

Academic Services at the University of Houston aim to support Cougar athletes in their primary goal of earning a degree, while also assisting them to prepare for life after college through career resources and the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program, and broadening their horizons by exposing them to community service opportunities.

Under the direction of the Assistant Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Services, Maria Peden, the Student-Athlete Academic Services unit runs a comprehensive program. In addition to Peden, the staff includes two academic coordinators, three counselors, and a learning specialist who assist over 350 UH student-athletes in 16 sports. One of the greatest resources available to current Cougar student-athletes is the Academic Center for Excellence (ACE), which is located in the Athletics/Alumni Center.

Open from 8:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m. weekdays and 6:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. on Sunday, ACE includes a 22-station computer lab with IBM and Macintosh computers. The computers are updated annually and all have internet access, CD-ROM capabilities and are connected on-line with the M.D. Anderson Library on campus. Each computer is connected to laser printers and includes a wide variety of word processing, spreadsheet, study skills tutorials and career education software packages.

ACE also offers a career resource library, a career preparation group room, two 50-person classrooms, five six-person small group study rooms and 16 one-on-one individual tutoring areas.

Study hall hours are designated for each team, and all freshmen student-athletes attend mandatory study halls. Tutors are available to assist all student-athletes in a variety of subjects.

Cougar team grade point averages are on the rise and eligibility problems are on the decline because academic success has been a point of emphasis of UH Director of Athletics, Dave Maggard, since he arrived on campus. All student-athletes, coaches and academic services support staff, in conjunction with the UH faculty, share the same commitment for educating and graduating every UH student-athlete who puts on the Red and White Cougar uniform.

The University of Houston student-athletes continue to improve academically. After the fall semester, seven of our programs had average grade point averages of 2.70 or above with three programs above a 3.00. Thirty-nine student-athletes were named to the Dean's List, while 144 student-athletes attained a GPA of 3.00 or better.

The University of Houston celebrated the graduation of almost 50 student-athletes at its annual student-athlete graduation reception.

Academic Highlights

UH student-athletes posted a cumulative grade point average of 2.58 as of Fall 2002.

Almost 50 student-athletes graduated in the 2001-02 school year.

Sixty percent (seven of 12) of the teams in the fall semester posted a GPA of 2.70 or better.

Three teams in the fall posted a team GPA of 3.0 or better.

The women's soccer team attained a team cumulative GPA of 3.00 for the 10th consecutive semester. Since the team's existence, they have not fallen below a 3.00.

Three student-athletes earned 4.00 semester GPAs.

Thirty-nine student-athletes made the Dean's List at UH.

One-hundred forty-four students-athletes achieved a 3.00 GPA or better in the fall.

Twelve student-athletes were awarded the Conference USA Commissioner's Academic Medal for maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 3.75.

Seventy-four student-athletes were selected to the C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll for maintaining a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or above.

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