Player of the Year-
Jane Hopkins Caldwell ‘73

Academic Counselor Jane Caldwell Helps Student-Athletes Make the Grade
By David Fyten, Wake Forest University

As men’s basketball coach Skip Prosser approached the podium at last spring’s sports banquet (2003) to name the Most Valuable Player for 2001-02, onlookers were speculating as to the recipient’s identity. Darius Songaila? Broderick Hicks? An underclassman, perhaps?
    No—Jane Caldwell.
    A woman as most valuable player of a men’s team? An unconventional choice, to say the least. But to those in the know, it was a slam-dunk. Few, if any, were more instrumental to the success of last season’s squad where it matters most to Prosser—scholastics—than the petite Caldwell, director of academic counseling for the athletic department.
    At a time when the low graduation rates of major college sports programs have come under criticism, all five seniors on last year’s team—Songaila, Hicks, Craig Dawson, Antwan Scott and Ervin Murray—earned their diplomas. Other Deacon coaches—Jim Grobe of football and Dianne Dailey of women’s golf, with whom Caldwell works directly, or those of the other sports, whose student-athletes are counseled by other members of her staff—might give her MVP consideration of their own.
    “Jane has been a wonderful addition to our staff,” says Athletics Director Ron Wellman. “She sincerely cares about all of our student-athletes. She has the unique ability to stretch them and, at the same time, nurture them. She wants them to realize their full academic potential and does everything within her power to motivate and inspire excellence in all phases of their lives. Wake Forest and Jane Caldwell are a perfect match.”
    Born in Camp Le Jeune and raised in Winston-Salem, Caldwell graduated in 1980 from UNC-Greensboro, where she played on the tennis team. After completing an M.A. in health and exercise science at Wake Forest in 1982, she taught school for a brief time, then spent 13 years—10 in Richmond, Va.—working in customer service and marketing with US Airways.
    “Over time I found that I really missed working with students,” says Caldwell. “When I learned [in 1999] there was an opening on the academic counseling staff here, I inquired immediately.” Hired by then-academic counseling director Doug Bland, Caldwell quickly distinguished herself with her combination of superior counseling and interpersonal skills. After Bland was promoted to associate athletic director for special projects in 2000, Caldwell assumed greater responsibility and was named director this past August.
    In their quarters occupying virtually the entire second floor of the Miller Center, Caldwell and her staff of three full-time counselors and 50 part-time tutors work with some 350 student-athletes in 16 men’s and women’s sports. Standards and expectations are high; freshmen must attend eight hours of supervised study hall a week, and if a student-athlete misses a class, the instructor calls Caldwell, who informs the player’s coach. With the dean’s office staff, she reviews the midterm grades of each freshman and, when called for, arranges for consultation with the student. “We have outstanding support from the faculty and the dean’s office,” she says. “It’s the close communication and cooperation we have with them that really make it possible for a student-athlete to succeed here.”
    Academic support services aren’t limited to counseling and tutoring. “To succeed as students, athletes must learn how to balance athletics and academics,” Caldwell points out. “The potentially competing demands of the classroom and the playing field make time management a crucial issue. We’ll help set up calendars for them that enable them to plan and account for their time to achieve their best results in both areas of their lives.”
    Caldwell says the athletic department’s commitment to academic achievement starts at the top and permeates the entire department. “Ron Wellman keeps his sights on hiring coaches who are focused on academics,” she observes. “We have supportive coaches, which makes our job so much easier. Coach Prosser talks to his players about the ‘ABCs’—how their priorities, in order of importance, are to be academics, basketball and character. He lets them know that what I say goes and that he will not tolerate missed classes.
    “All of our coaches involve us in the recruiting process and comply with all of our requests,” she adds. “They are interested in our feedback on prospective student-athletes, and they know that if we get them off to a good start when they get here, their success rate will be much higher.”
    The results speak for themselves: at a school ranked among the top 25 in the nation scholastically, very few Deacon athletes are ruled academically ineligible each year. The football team, which competes in the college sport that nationally has the lowest overall academic performance, has one of the highest graduation rates in Division I.
    “I consider our program a no-fail plan if they’ll listen to what we have to say,” says Caldwell, who has two children with her husband, Wayland, an instructional technology specialist at the Calloway School. “The few that fail are the ones who won’t listen. There are no gifts for them. But if they’ll make the effort, the support for them is there.”

(This article appeared in the April 16, 2003 edition of “Window on Wake Forest,” the University’s on-line newsletter. It is reprinted with their permission)