New academic center christened at ceremony by athletics director

When IU Athletics Director Fred Glass was appointed in January 2009, he set four goals for his department: play by the rules, achieve academically, excel athletically and integrate athletics into the rest of the University.

Glass and his department took another step in living up to those priorities with the naming of the D. Ames Shuel Academic Center on Friday.

Located underneath the east side of Memorial Stadium, the academic center is a 25,800-square-foot complex that includes 16 classrooms, a computer lab and various studying areas.

The facility is more than 23,000 square feet larger than the previous one and will provide more than 640 student athletes with a centrally located area to study.

“The old academic center was not only by a huge margin the smallest in the Big Ten, but it was just nasty,” Glass said. “This takes us to a whole new level with one of the most modern and best technology facilities.”

The center’s naming concludes the “For the Glory of Old IU” campaign that was started before Glass became director two years ago.

The campaign raised more than $94 million and includes the building of Cook Hall, the North Endzone Project and the recent announcement of new baseball and softball stadiums to be built in spring 2012.

Among those in attendance at the ceremony was IU Baseball Coach Tracy Smith.
He said the building of the academic center makes an important statement that IU takes the term “student athlete” seriously.

“Before, we literally had students laying on the ground in the hallways of Assembly Hall, studying like that,” Smith said. “For them to go and now have access to a facility like this is remarkable. The one thing you always want to remind people is to not take it for granted because of what we had.”

The University will also use the center for classes, which falls within Glass’ priority of integrating with the University.

Last calendar year, IU had 242 Academic All-Americans with 13 of Indiana’s 24 teams receiving a perfect score of 1,000 on the Academic Progress Report.

Glass mentioned Kelly Noonan, the assistant athletic director for academic and student development, along with the coaches.

He said Noonan played a crucial role in those numbers.

“The average person would be surprised how closely our coaching staffs track how their players are doing in class,” Glass said. “It is something they pay a lot of attention to and is something you have to have because they have so much influence on our student athletes.”

Speaking on behalf of the student athletes was men’s basketball player Victor Oladpio.
The sophomore guard hails from DeMatha High School in Maryland and said he knows how important the academic center will be in student-athletes’ lives away from their respective playing fields.

“Without education, I wouldn’t be playing basketball,” Oladipo said. “This facility has everything you need to be successful. I’m just privileged and honored to have this opportunity to talk to people here and to represent the student athletes.”