Correction Appended: This incorrectly stated that Donald Graham chairman of the Washington Post Company, donated money used to build the Stephen M. Ross Academic Center. The actual donor was University alum Donald Graham who founded the Graham Engineering Company.

LSA junior Jason Dest struggled when he took his first calculus course. It wasn't that he was bad at math or not smart enough - he is now an economics major. It wasn't that he was uncommitted or that he didn't go to class. Well, it was partially that last one.

Dest is a defenseman on the Michigan hockey team. The team travels a lot and so does Dest. His calculus course was every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and he missed a lot of Friday classes because of his travel. To make it worse, his instructor scheduled quizzes every Friday.

"I was always missing the quizzes," Dest said. "And then she would have review sessions during practice times, so I never got to attend any of those."

Though it may not sound like it, Dest was lucky. Instead of denying him opportunities to reschedule - he has had professors do this to him in the past - his calculus instructor worked with him. She met him at the library late at night, sometimes as late as midnight, to go over material he missed and review any algebra he was having a hard time with. She let him make up quizzes on Mondays.

How's he going to handle it?

It's rare for a student athlete to find a teacher as accommodating as Dest's, but academic support is easy to come by at Michigan. Just head down State Street to the athletic campus and look for the new building with the large windows and the big sign that says Stephen M. Ross Academic Center.

There you can find Shari Acho and Sue Shand, co-directors of the Academic Success Program at Michigan. They are two of ten full-time staff members - paid out of the athletic department's budget - who work with athletes to make sure as many as possible get through the rigors of a Michigan education.

The University can be an intimidating place for any student, and for athletes it's often tougher. Between practice, watching film, weight training, rehab and competition, athletes essentially work a full-time job in addition to going to school. To make it worse, many of them worked the same full-time job in high school, meaning they are often less prepared than other students. Although Ted Spencer, executive director of undergraduate admissions, insists the University doesn't admit any students who are not qualified, it does admit those who can, with the proper amount of assistance, tackle the challenges that will face them.

The proper amount of assistance: That's where academic support comes in. Tutors, learning specialists and academic counselors - along with computers and places to read - are all available to athletes in need of assistance.

"It's very student-specific," Acho said. "We don't have any cookie-cutter program. It depends on their schedule, and it depends on their strengths and weaknesses."

It used to be different. Until this year, the system looked a little more like a gingerbread man. All freshmen were required to go to study table Sunday through Wednesday from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. There was no set location because the athletic department didn't have any space. So students were scattered throughout campus - in Mason Hall, in the Shapiro Undergraduate Library, even in the Department of Public Safety offices.

With the new building and resources, freshman study table will change to allow for a little more flexibility. Instead of being forced to study at times determined by the athletic department, now a freshman student athlete will be able choose when he wants to study. He will still be required to have designated study time for eight hours a week, but now he can schedule time with tutors, time in the Ross Academic Center's 70-station computer lab and time to sit in the center's lounge in front of the fireplace or flatscreen TV and read - all as a part of his required eight hours.

"I'd have kids - again, I work specifically with football - but they would come to study table and they'd have ice bags on their shoulders and their knees. They're exhausted," Acho said. "So this is really going to give our kids the flexibility to study when it works best for them in their schedule as opposed to it having to be in the evening."

Acho is quick to point out that all of Michigan's student athletes have to study more than eight hours per week if they are going to graduate, but she said she thinks it's important, especially for freshmen, to know they are somewhere studying for that block of time.

"These are student athletes, a lot of them tops in the nation," Acho said. "So these are kids who maybe never had to do it before sometimes.