jdredmon@mavs.coloradomesa.edu

Tom Spicer didn’t need much of a transition period. After officially starting as Athletic Director in early April, Spicer was already in the fold on making sure student-athletes are just that.

Making sure they have direct help from the administration is part of that, but so is being held accountable. To ensure that students were unable make many excuses for academic and athletic failure, the school implemented the Student Success program over the summer, with the Athletic Department working with athletes within the program’s perameters.

“We needed to take away all the excuses,” Spicer said. “[Students] are here to get a degree and have an impact on society. You cannot use academics as an excuse for failure in athletics and you can’t use athletics as an excuse for failure in academics.”

To make sure athletes are focused, Spicer said the graduation rate will be reflected as more and more students are retained through the decrease of academic failure.

“We want to make sure that the new students have someone to help them learn how to make that transition from high school,” Spicer said. “We believe that’s going to be tied directly to the retention rate of those new students.”

Former head basketball coach Jim Heaps was promoted to front the Student Success program for the Athletic Department and a number of assistant coaches were hired with the program in mind to make certain the new program would not lose any ground in its first year.

What Spicer and the department want after students graduate, is for them to be able to look back and feel proud for their alma mater’s continued success. Spicer feels that the responsibility in doing so falls on everybody who is involved with CMU.

“It’s a pride factor,” Spicer said. “We want to produce a very good product that they can be proud of. If we are going to have a first-class institution, we need to have a first-class everything. Everyone needs to do their best to raise the quality.”

As far as this fall’s athletic season starting up, Spicer is as excited as anyone to witness the program begin to grow firsthand.

“Fall is a very special time here in the valley,” Spicer said. “School is starting up and athletics is in the air.”