The NCAA News - News & Features

Commission OKs differing means of involving athletes

The Commission, which met June 25-26 in San Francisco, supported the different approaches based on the recommendation of the NCAA Transition Oversight Committee. That group discussed whether student-athletes should be represented the same way throughout the Association and concluded that in the new federated structure, the level of student-athlete involvement could vary from division to division.

The division recommendations are:

* Division I: Two student-athletes from the Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) would be designated to share the committee's views with the Division I Management Council and to participate in the Management Council's consideration of all legislative proposals. Those student-athletes, who would serve as nonvoting members of the Management Council, would be chosen by the Division I SAAC. The SAAC representatives on the Management Council could vary from meeting to meeting.

The Division I transition Board of Directors also recommended that the SAAC report directly to the Management Council, rather than one of the four proposed cabinets; that the SAAC contain a student-athlete from every conference represented in the Division I governance structure; that every conference nominate three individuals for service on the SAAC and that the Management Council select the representative from that pool; and that the agenda for Management Council meetings be arranged in a way that would accommodate student-athletes' schedules and facilitate their involvement in relevant issues.

* Division II: In Division II, student-athletes would not attend every Management Council meeting. Instead, the recommendation is for one meeting a year that would be devoted specifically to student-athlete issues. Student-athletes from every Division II conference would attend a "student-athlete summit" that probably would be conducted in early summer in order to minimize conflict with students' academic schedules. The Division II Presidents Council and Management Council Transition Teams also noted the early summer date would provide student-athletes with maximum input at an appropriate time, since the Division II legislative deadlines will remain the same as they currently are (July 15 for the membership, September 1 for governance bodies).

In addition, the Division II SAAC will report directly to the Division II Management Council. The Division II transition teams believe that the SAAC will improve the effectiveness of student-athlete involvement at both the campus and conference levels.

Other Division II student-athlete issues, such as the composition of the Division II SAAC and the frequency of its meetings, remain under consideration.

* Division III: Two Division III members of the Division III SAAC (one male and one female) are to be added as voting members to the Division III Management Council. Once the division's committee structure has been resolved, the task force will consider means by which to involve student-athletes on other Division III committees.

The Presidents Commission also agreed to sponsor other legislation recommended by the Transition Oversight Committee, including specifying committee functions that would be applied on an Association-wide basis (see the June 24 issue of The NCAA News). Such legislation would be voted upon in the general business session at the 1997 NCAA Convention; each division will consider its own substructure in the division business sessions.

The Commission also will sponsor legislation to establish a process for creating National Collegiate championships. Such championships will be created if they are authorized by each division's governance structure (Convention votes by Divisions II and III, authorization by the Board of Directors in Division I). Existing and new National Collegiate championships would be administered by the Division I Championships Committee.

The Commission also agreed to sponsor legislation to extend the provisional membership period from three to four years in all divisions.

Other highlights

Presidents Commission
June 25-26/San Francisco

* Extended the terms of all Presidents Commission members and officers through August 1997 to aid with the transition to the new governance structure.

* Authorized the Commission's Executive Committee to fine-tune legislative recommendations agreed to during the March and June meetings since the full Commission does not meet again before the September 1 legislative deadline.

* Endorsed the concept of developing a set of "key messages" for the NCAA and returned a set of such messages to the NCAA Communications Committee for minor revisions.

* Received a report from the NCAA Academic Requirements Committee based on a recent survey of two-year college registrars and admissions officers. The survey revealed that junior college transcripts do not necessarily specify whether a course is a correspondence course or whether instruction is provided in a classroom. For that reason, the committee concluded that additional legislation in that area could be difficult to enforce; instead, it recommended recent legislation relating to two-year college transfers should be given an opportunity to work.

The Academic Requirements Committee also provided a review of its discussions with the U.S. Justice Department regarding accommodations for learning-disabled students. The committee will discuss this matter again at its July meeting.