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HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — When Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick first returned to the university in that job, the former Thundering Herd linebacker asked where student-athletes went for tutoring, computer labs and academic advising. He didn't like what he saw.
"I can remember walking into this little room in the Shewey Building and there were 12 computers and five of them were broken," he said, "and there were 20 kids sitting, waiting to get onto a computer."
The days of cramped rooms and broken computers are gone. Marshall student-athletes now can take advantage of the wide-open spaces of the Buck Harless Student-Athlete Academic Center, a 14,000-square-foot area on second floor of the Chris Cline Athletic Complex.
The center, which opened earlier this month, traded the outdated facilities of old for the room and technology that could appropriately serve the university's nearly 400 student-athletes. Tara Helton, the athletic program's director of academic counseling, said the anticipation to open the facility grew by the day, but nothing matched watching the student-athletes actually using it.
"You realized — obviously the space, the technology — you knew it was going to be much better than anything we have at Marshall," she said. "But when you walked in and saw student-athletes using it, it sort of took your breath away a little bit to know it's finally come to fruition. To have something on this grand of scale, I'd put this academic center against any in the nation."
Before the Harless Center opened, Marshall student-athletes had a room at the Shewey Building and another at Gullickson Hall. Shewey's room had eight computers. Gullickson's area had 17 computers, two cubicles and a five-person classroom.
The Harless Center more than quadrupled the number of available computers. The main computer lab has 64 touch-screen computers. A separate "quiet" lab has 34 more. The center has four tutorial rooms that can house two to four students, plus four group rooms for four to six students, a 25-seat classroom and a 75-seat auditorium, all equipped with computers. It also includes a recruiting lounge where coaches from all sports can meet with recruits in a room that has both the Harless Center and the indoor practice facility and track in full view.
The new technology was first and foremost on Helton's wish list for the new center, along with the room to allow student-athletes to study comfortably. A welcoming space can make a big difference in a student's desire to study, she said.
"It's crucial," she said. "It's critical. You have a convenient location for our student-athletes, ample technology, ample space for group meetings, one-on-one tutoring, quiet places to sit down and study. I think it makes all the difference for our student-athletes to succeed."
The Harless Center is part of the fruits of Marshall's Vision Campaign, which includes an indoor practice facility and track, an athletic hall of fame, the new soccer stadium and the soon-to-open Marshall Sports Medicine Institute.
"Every one of these facilities, our goal was to make sure it was the best that you could build, and we've done that," Hamrick said. "The academic facility is up there with the rest of them. It's absolutely amazing. Really, we're going from having nothing to having probably one of the best in the country. This thing matches up with anything I've ever seen and anywhere I've ever been."
Marshall athletics has done well in the academic arena. The latest multi-year academic progress rates for football, men's basketball, men's golf and both indoor and outdoor track and field were the highest in the 10 years the NCAA has used the APR and tennis and women's cross country matched their 10-year highs.
Helton said the Harless Center will be perfect in helping those numbers to continue climbing.
"I can actually say we got everything we asked for," she said.
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Information from: Charleston Daily Mail, http://www.charlestondailymail.com
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