Elliot H. Cole Academic Support Center Fall and Spring Semester Hours
Sunday: 9 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Monday-Thursday: 8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Friday: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Academic Support Services
Student-Athlete Academic Support Services (SASS) exists to help student-athletes coordinate and balance their academic and athletic demands. The objective is to provide comprehensive services to support all student-athletes in their overall personal development and their pursuit of academic and athletic goals. One of the primary goals of SASS is to ensure that student-athletes are meeting University and NCAA standards while making appropriate progress towards a Boston University degree. In essence, SASS staff are academic coordinators rather than academic advisors and are here to supplement and augment the efforts of the academic staffs in the schools/colleges at BU. Our office is the liaison to the school/college advising offices, the faculty, Registrar’s Office, University Service Center, and the Office of Disability Services. We advocate for the student-athletes and assist them, if necessary, in communicating with these staffs and offices.
Academic Counseling
To meet identified needs of individual student-athletes and to ensure all incoming student-athletes are firmly established, weekly and bi-weekly meetings are scheduled with all new student-athletes and with additional student-athletes at any class level. These meetings are an effort to take a proactive approach in assisting with study skills strategies, transition to college, time management, open communication, and to ensure student-athletes are aware of BU and NCAA academic requirements. At the same time, these appointments provide the student-athlete with information about the various on campus resources that are available for their use.
Academic Progress Monitoring and Reporting
Progress reports are requested each semester from faculty members through the faculty/staff link. Reports are requested for all freshmen student-athletes, any athlete not meeting a GPA threshold stipulated by a coach, and student-athletes for whom a report is judged necessary or helpful by a coach. The information in these reports is discussed with student-athletes and coaching staffs. Follow up with the student-athlete, faculty member, tutors, and coaching staffs is ongoing throughout the semester for student-athletes receiving feedback on the reports.
Study Hall
Freshmen student-athletes attend a mandatory study hall for a set number of hours a week during their first semester at Boston University. After the initial semester, study hall can be mandated for student-athletes who fail to maintain a grade point average (GPA) stipulated by coaching staffs, encountered academic difficulty or simply need more structured study time. All student-athletes are encouraged to utilize the academic center/study hall regardless of academic year.
Teamworks Academics
Teamworks Academics allows student-athletes to make appointments with SASS staff, sign in and out of study hall, track their study hall hours, request a tutoring or study coach appointment, review their class schedule, and maintain a personal calendar. For additional assistance scheduling an appointment with a tutor or a study coach, students should reach out to their SASS advisor.
Travel Letters
From time to time student-athletes may miss class due to athletic competition. For this reason travel letters are provided to all student-athletes who will be traveling and/or competing as a representative of the University. The intent of the travel letter is to notify the faculty in advance that a student-athlete has a conflict between travel/competition and class. The travel letter is not intended to be an excuse letter for missing classes; faculty have their own policies regarding class attendance that should be followed. Student-athletes are asked to provide a travel letter to each of their faculty members, discussion professors and lab instructors. We strongly urge them to make arrangements to make up any missed lecture notes, class work, discussions and/or labs. We also ask them to work with their professors as far in advance as possible to make alternative arrangements for exams or quizzes scheduled during travel and competition. For tournament, postseason and championship play, student-athletes will be provided a travel letter separate from, and in addition to, the regular-season travel letter.
