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Senior hurdler Allison Stankavage is the co-chair of Duke's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and is a representative to the ACC SAAC. Stankavage took a few minutes to chat with theACC.com about SAAC's initiatives and her experiences. |
What is the overall goal of Duke's SAAC?
The goal is to develop us as student-athletes, deal with welfare issues and NCAA legislation, and perform community service. We're the voice for student-athletes and it's our responsibility to make sure we're doing as much as we can for the benefit of all student-athletes.
How is Duke's SAAC set up?
Allie Johnson and I are the co-chairs, and then we have certain committee leaders for our annual events. We have the Winter/Spring Fun Day leader and a Project Share leader, and then a third one that deals with spirit and team relations as far as promoting events for sports that might not get as much attendance. We try to get athletes to support other athletes through promotion, whether it be through sports information or sports (marketing) or creating Facebook groups to highlight a specific event.
(We also have a new set-up.) Every SAAC member has to sign up for a committee (this year), so it makes the SAAC more involved and gets their team particularly involved. There are two members (of each team) on SAAC, and it's up to the teams to decide who they are. They act as liaisons between their teams and our SAAC, while we (Allie and I) act as liaisons between our SAAC and the ACC SAAC.
 | | Project Share |
What are some of the recurring community service projects that SAAC runs or participates in?
We have activities throughout the year, such as Read With the Blue Devils. We do some stuff with Habitat for Humanity, along with some routine service projects that we do every year. Project Share, which we do in December, is where we ask SAAC members to collect money from teams. We adopt a few families who can't afford Christmas gifts and go out to Target, buy (a few gifts for them), and come back to wrap the presents and send them to the families. Another thing is Winter/ Spring Fun Day, where we have SAAC members volunteer to help out at this event we run at our (intramural) gym. We have 200-300 elementary school students come in as well as SAAC members and their teammates from different sports for a mini-clinic. For example, a soccer player will teach them about soccer, etc., while emphasizing to stay in school and have a healthy lifestyle.
We also have another group on campus run by student-athletes that does exclusively community service. Some of the events that used to be just SAAC are now branching out and being run by them.
What events are planned for the current semester?
The big one is the Spring Fun Day. That's coming up in March and we're really excited about it. It's going to be the first one that doesn't have a basketball game afterwards, but we're looking forward to it because of the new way the SAAC is set-up and we should have a lot more participation.
What student-athlete welfare issues is SAAC currently focusing on?
The big one right now as far as legislation goes is the "3 and 30% rule" for student-athletes to get a year (of eligibility) back. It was "2 and 20%" before. One of our fellow track and field student-athletes (had a season-ending) injury in the third meet of the season and he couldn't get that year back under the old legislation. Starting in the current school year, (anyone in that position) can now petition to get a year of eligibility back. I personally was excited about that one, and I know that's a big reason why (that particular athlete) got involved in SAAC.
What other issues do you feel SAAC has had an impact on in the past?
I can say as far as the ACC SAAC, we were really excited about the text message ban. (There was another attempt) this year to override the ban, but we really did not want texting to be allowed from coaches to prospective athletes. This was something that was brought up in the ACC SAAC meeting back in October. Sportsmanship was another big thing mentioned in that meeting. We are working continuously to try and change the perception of the Sportsmanship Award, that it's not a bad award to get. There is a preconceived notion now that the worst teams (athletically) get that award, so we're working to figure out how to promote the Sportsmanship Award as a good thing. It's not necessarily something for those teams that come in last place, but for those that also win graciously.
How did you personally get so involved with SAAC?
My first SAAC meeting was when a senior was handing down her position to me. On the track team, the SAAC position is passed down to someone who is thought to be more active (and a good fit for SAAC). I took to it, thought about how things could change, and learned a lot more. I got even more involved my junior year when I got on the ACC SAAC.
Can you talk about your time on the ACC SAAC?
At the conference level, you realize how much you didn't know. You don't realize how much you can really do until you're at the next level up, and I (took that back to Duke) to help the Duke SAAC best get across what the ACC SAAC was trying to do. People don't realize that as student-athletes, we have a big hand in what happens. I think this year through my involvement in SAAC and the Athletic Council here at Duke, I saw that professors, coaches, and the administration really value our opinion as well.
 | | Project Share |
How do you feel your time on Duke's SAAC and the ACC SAAC will help you after graduation?
It's definitely helped me so far. This is how I became aware of the ACC Futures Internship that I applied for. It helped me as far as finding what I want to do in the future - to be more involved in athletics. I think when most athletes are done, they don't want to completely get away from sports and I definitely don't! Since Duke doesn't offer a lot of sport-related classes, I was able to go to the SAAC director - Leslie Barnes - for a lot of my resume help and sports-related workshops.
If there was something you would like the public to know about Duke's SAAC or its student-athletes, what would it be?
Listening to what student-athletes have to say and communicating between administration and athletics is very important. I believe that various SAACs don't always realize the power that they really do have. I would say for student-athletes to get more involved and be more aware of what's going on. Until I got involved especially in the ACC SAAC, I wasn't aware of the legislation (and the impact we could make).
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