Student Athletes Push for Progress

The Student-Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC), a representative body consisting of two student-athletes from each varsity athletic team, tackles many projects—planning student experience initiatives, discussing NCAA and NESCAC policies, liaising between administration and student-athletes. For Lilly Bolen ’21, it is a meaningful space where she’s “had the opportunity to meet athletes across campus, participate in philanthropy that is incredibly important, and experience the feeling of making a difference and impact in the Tufts community.” Check out what SAAC has accomplished this past year... and where it is headed.

Expanding SAAC: Each year, the SAAC Community Engagement and Jumbo Experience Committees work diligently to enhance the experience of student-athletes, advocate for change, and promote community initiatives. During the 2021–2022 school year, SAAC added two committees to achieve these goals. First, to better highlight athletic accomplishments and SAAC’s work, the Marketing Committee and SAAC Instagram were created. Second, the Social Justice Committee was formed to aid educational and community initiatives that better promote racial and social justice, and equality among Tufts Athletics and the greater Tufts community. The appointed head representative leads these initiatives and acts as a liaison between SAAC and the student group Athletes of Color (AOC) which aims to create a community of support for student-athletes of color on campus.

Campus Efforts and Events: In addition to these organizational changes, SAAC is incredibly proud of the many initiatives and events they’ve sponsored that have made an impact in the community and enhanced the athletic experience at Tufts. In October of 2021, SAAC will host its fourth annual Play for Pink Breast Cancer Awareness fundraising event which will benefit Living Beyond Breast Cancer. Despite being entirely online in 2020, SAAC raised a record setting $25,000 for the non-profit organization. In February of 2020, SAAC sponsored a mental health week which included sports psychologist led meditation and mindfulness sessions, mental health awareness talks, and journals and journaling prompts, alongside encouraging SAAC representatives to have important conversations with their teammates about mental health. In the months leading up to the 2020 election, Tufts’ SAAC competed with other NESCAC SAACs over which athletic department could drum up the highest levels of student-athlete voter participation. Each team tracked involvement, and SAAC representatives informed athletes on how to get their votes counted. According to the 2020–21 SAAC President Lilly Bolen ’21,“It was a wonderful, and powerful, way to engage in the civic process and with other schools and athletes. At Tufts, we had several teams reach 100% voter participation in the election—a remarkable feat considering that our demographic typically votes at far less than half that rate.” SAAC ended the spring semester sponsoring “Pride Games’’ for the spring sports teams. Every team was given shirts to show support for LGBTQ+ athletes. Spring sports teams participated in a sponsored game honoring Athlete Ally, an organization supporting and bringing awareness to the challenges of LGBTQ+ athletes. In addition to the games, teams participated in discussions centered on sexual assault and sexuality, led by Green Dot representatives among each team. This year, SAAC hopes to participate in targeted training to educate athletes on LGBTQ+ vocabulary and challenges.

Closing: Erin Poindexter McHan ’21, a Women’s Basketball representative and Community Relations Head, sums up her experience: “I believe in leaving communities better than I found them. Being a part of SAAC has given me the opportunity to use my voice as well as listen to my fellow athletes and teammates in order to better our collective athletics community. It has also given me ample opportunities for collective action, leadership, and service that has made my Tufts experience whole.”