Cindy Miller has been helping Eastern students get their degree for 19 years and counting.

Miller was hired as the academic advisor for student athletes a couple of months after she graduated from Eastern in 1995 with her masters and completed her undergraduate degree a year prior to that in 1994.

From 1999-03, Miller served as the academic advisor in the Eastern records office and then went back to athletics in 2003.

On July 1 of that year, Miller was hired as Director of Academic Services for Athletes and currently holds the position.

Miller said she came back to athletics for the relationships that she builds with the students.

“I missed building a relationship with the students and assisting them and watching them grow as a student and a person,” she said. “I wanted that challenge again, that is, of working with the student-athletes.”

When Miller first started the Panther Athletic Support Services (PASS) program, her office was in the basement of Stevenson Hall, where they had study hall in the dining hall at night.

In 2006, the PASS Center was opened on the second floor of Lantz Arena.

The program provides specialized support to student-athletes in light of the unique time demands, responsibilities and rules governing participation in intercollegiate athletics.

Miller, along with her staff of Holly Nichols and graduate assistant Lindsey Sturm, monitor the academic progress of approximately 450 student-athletes over the course of the year.

Nichols, who just graduated in May from the College of Student Affairs program said she had to have two internships and a graduate assistantship as a requirement for the program.

With being a student-athlete in college, Nichols said she was interested having a job that deals with athletics.

When the position to be Miller’s assistant in July, Nichols filled in and is currently working as the assistant of academic services for the athletic department.

Each member of Miller’s staff monitors progress reports, which are emailed to them once a month for all the classes each student is taking.

They monitor grades through a new online platform called Grades First.

They also collect and review all the athletes’ mid-semester grades and keep the coaches up to date on the progress.

On a day-to-day basis, Nichols and Miller meet with approximately 10-20 athletes each day to discuss matters such as academic, athletic, career and/or personal issues that athlete chooses to discuss.

Each advisor sets up meetings each day with student athletes who have questions and also some just pop in and ask a question or two.

Also, each member of the staff is assigned a different sport.

Nichols manages football, softball, men’s and women’s tennis and women’s soccer and monitors their progress on a day-to-day basis.

Sturm is in charge of monitoring study hall, but her main responsibility is the men’s and women’s basketball team and Miller is in charge of the rest of the sports.

One of the sports Miller handles is baseball and sophomore pitcher Jake Haberer said he visits Miller three to four times for advice and for who to see to get help for his classes.

“My first fall semester, I went to her a lot with some problems that weren’t school related, that she helped me out with a lot,” he said. “Whether it’s school related or personally related, I always go to her because I know she will do her best to help me with whatever it is that is bothering me and won’t judge me.”

Senior baseball player Dane Sauer said since he is an upperclassmen, he only goes and sees Miller about two or three times a semester.

“When I was younger, it was more,” he said.

One of the other sports Miller deals with is rugby. Coach Frank Graziano said he is impressed with the job she does on a daily basis.

“She has a wonderful rapport with all of the student-athletes,” he said. “She has a great rapport with the people on campus working on the academic side of that and somehow you have to blend all that together, and there is nobody better on this campus that can put those pieces together.”

In the spring of 2014, the average grade point average for the athletic teams was 3.22.

There were three teams that had a team GPA of more than 3.5, which included the men’s tennis team with the highest GPA of a 3.69, women’s soccer with a 3.57 and women’s softball with a 3.54.

65 out of 422 student-athletes had at least a 4.0 GPA and 260 athletes had at least a GPA of 3.0.

In 2013, Eastern ranked third among Ohio Valley Conference schools and Illinois Public Universities with an 86 percent graduation rate, which included student-athletes that entered mid-year and transfers.

Belmont University ranked first with 95 percent and University of Illinois-Champaign ranked second with 90 percent.

Nichols said seeing all the high GPA’s from the student-athletes makes her proud to know what it is going towards.

“They are here to earn degrees,” she said. “Athletics is an added bonus.  They are going to class every day, putting in the effort, meeting with professors, working hard on quizzes, tests, homework, all of that, while participating in a collegiate sport.  So it is an accomplishment for them more than me I feel like, but that is what is great to see.”

At the end of the day, Miller said she feels like she has accomplished something with the work she puts in.

“I feel like I have a purpose everyday,” she said. “I feel like I am here to help them. We have so much diversity in this department. You just hear so many interesting stories and you get to know them. They become, for me, like my second family.”

Haberer added that Miller is very approachable and does excellent work with all the athletes.

“Cindy is great,” he said. “She makes sure we are getting all of our work done and she makes sure everyone is on track with their classes and does the best that they can. She is very approachable and understanding so it’s easy to go to her.”

Miller’s 20^th anniversary of being at Eastern will be in November.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].