As usual, at the annual meeting with the Downtown Coaches Club, the meeting began with a loud Go Green! Go White! Rotarians were welcomed to the meeting and President Darwin gave a short welcome and thanks to the members of both clubs. The student of the week was presented as a 6th grader from Pattengill Middle School who will be going to his first Spartan game thanks to the Downtown Coaches Club. The coach to speak at this week’s meeting was Brad Salem, Quarterbacks Coach. He is in his 8th year at MSU and his 5 th as the quarterbacks coach. His goal is to prepare every quarterback to be able to start today. Joining Coach Salem were players Brian Lewerke (starting QB) and Tyler Higby (starting Guard). Brian and Tyler are both in their third year at MSU. Brian is an economics major and Tyler is a communications major. Brian is from Seattle and then Phoenix and Tyler is from Houston. Tyler was happy to be able to return to Houston with some of his teammates to help with the after-effects of Hurricane Harvey. Hondo from Spartan Nation provided a report on the upcoming game with Iowa and it should be an even matchup as long as MSU keeps mistake free. June Youatt, Provost and EVP for Academic Affairs for MSU was introduced as today’s featured speaker. Dr. Youatt is an MSU graduate and her current role is to ensure that the “student” in student athletes is everyone’s first priority. She stressed the 3 keys to eligibility for all student athletes is 1) classes; 2) grades; 3) degree completion. Integrity is overlaid with all of three cornerstones. There are 900 scholarship athletes at MSU and all have the same eligibility requirements. All must enroll in at least 9 credits per semester and complete 24 credits within a year. It is the commitment of MSU coaches that make student athletes successful at MSU. Tutors and study tables are also key elements to success. In 2016 there were 426 athletes with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher and 68 athletes with a 4.0 in the spring semester. Last spring semester as the highest GPA average by student athletes in MSU’s history with a 3.138 average for all athletes. The most student athletes are enrolled as business majors followed by communications. 45 are enrolled in agriculture/natural resources. Raffle prizes were given out and then the autographed football for only Rotarians to win went to Justin Caine. Our next meeting will be at Grand River Park, 3001 Lansing Road (across the river from the Country Club) on the Michigan Princess Riverboat. See you then! Julie Pingston's email is: jpingston@lansing.org |