SAAC (Student Athlete Advisory Council)
Mission Statement
Provide and enhance the academic and athletic experience for the student-athlete. Promote a good relationship between students, faculty, and staff through community awareness and communication.
What is the SAAC?
The student-athlete advisory council (SAAC) is a council comprised of student-athletes assembled to provide insight on the student-athlete experience. The SAAC also offers input on the rules, regulations, and policies that affect student-athletes' lives on NCAA member institution campuses.
National SAACs at a Glance
-Generate a student-athlete voice within the NCAA structure
-Solicit student-athlete responses to proposed NCAA legislation
-Recommend potential NCAA legislation
-Review, react, and comment to the governance structure on legislation, activities and subjects of interest
-Actively participate in the administrative process of athletics programs and the NCAA
-Promote a positive student-athlete image.
NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committees
NCAA Division I SAAC
Mission Statement of National SAACs
“The mission statement of the National Collegiate Student-Athlete Advisory Committee is to enhance the total student-athlete experience by promoting opportunity, protecting student-athlete welfare and fostering a positive student-athlete image.”
2008-09 UCR SAAC
President
Danielle Evans (Women's Cross Country, Track & Field)
Vice President
TreAna Hundley (Women's Track & Field)
Treasurer/Secretary
Sarah Mohammadi (Women's Soccer)
Public Relations
Heidi Garrett (Women's Soccer)
Student Advisors
Amy Read (Volleyball)
Angie Mitchell (Volleyball)
Team Representatives
Baseball
Eddie Orozco
Dan Pelligrino
Basketball (Men's)
Cleavon Barlow
Jalonni Diggs
Christian Soto
Basketball (Women's)
Jessie Schmuckal
Cross Country (Men's)
Raul Lara
Cross Country (Women's)
Brittany Young
Golf (Men's)
Scott Clayton
Golf (Women's)
Linda Ong
Soccer (Men's)
David Lozano
David Watson
Soccer (Women's)
Stacie Anderson
Softball
Kameryn Hebenton
Amanda Klimczak
Tiana Towns
Tennis (Men's)
Quoc Doan
John Park
Tennis (Women's)
Angelique Corpuz
Donna McCollough
Erynne Oki
Track & Field (Men's)
Marcus Marbrey
Elvin Tabah
Track & Field (Women's)
Reanne Swafford
Volleyball
Jasmin White
Tonbara Youpele
SAMs (Student Athlete Mentors)
The development of the Student Athlete Mentors program was a process that took well over a year to complete. A team of staff and student-athletes attended a conference in San Diego in the spring of 1999, which outlined a national SAM model developed by the University of Virginia. They returned to campus with the goal of developing our own SAM program.
The Student Athlete Advisory Council was approached for their feedback and support. As it turned out, they liked the idea so much that they wanted to take on the role and identity of SAMs. During the 1999-2000 academic year, SAAC representatives (two from each team) also assumed the role of SAMs. This dual role and responsibility created a great deal of confusion, and also resulted in varying degrees of commitment to what we were trying to accomplish with SAMs. Therefore, by the end of the year, it was decided that SAMs needed to be a separate program with an application and interview process to get the right people involved. SAMs also became one of the three student organizations to make up the "Golden ARCHES" Peer Health Education Program.
Since the fall of 2000, the SAMs program has played a vital role in helping to identify and address issues within the intercollegiate athletics program. From individual concerns to team and department-wide issues, the SAMs members have played a significant role in bringing things to the table, allowing us to take a pro-active and early intervention approach to addressing them. While this may sound like a "watchdog" type of situation, many of the people we have been able to help through this process have often times told us that by having a peer level resource to turn to, they have been able to get the help they need before it was too late or before a minor concern became a major crisis.
Based on the success of SAMs and the "Golden ARCHES" program, we were invited to present our program at the 2005 APPLE Conference in Long Beach (the same conference we went to in 1999 to learn about the SAM model). After the conference, and getting positive feedback from several conference participants, the ultimate compliment came at the end of the conference. One of the University of Virginia staff members who coordinated the conference said, "We may have developed the SAM model at the University of Virginia, but UCR has clearly risen to the top and become the gold standard for SAM programs across the country to learn from.