The NCAA News - News & Features

Student-athletes seek greater voice in restructured Association

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee met August 16-17 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Earlier this year, the committee recommended to the Oversight Committee on the NCAA Membership Structure that student-athlete representatives be included on each of the three membership division's management councils. The management councils are part of the new NCAA governance structure that was approved at the NCAA Convention in January.

In response to that request, the restructuring transition teams in each division made the following recommendations to the Transition Oversight Committee:

* Division I. The Management Council would include two student-athlete representatives. They would not have voting responsibilities.

* Division II. In lieu of direct representation on the Management Council, the Management Council and Student-Athlete Advisory Committee would hold a joint meeting once a year to discuss legislative issues.

* Division III. The Management Council would include two student-athlete representatives who would have voting responsibilities.

The committee is pleased with the Transition Oversight Committee's efforts to ensure student-athlete representation in all divisions in the restructured Association and with the decision to include student-athletes with voting privileges on the Division III Management Council. However, the committee has several concerns related to its roles in Divisions I and II and has forwarded the following recommendations to the Division I Management Council Transition Team and the Division II Management Council Transition Team seeking:

* Voting privileges for its two representatives on the Division I Management Council.

* Student-athlete representation and voting privileges on the Division II Management Council.

* Student-athlete representation on Association-wide committees.

* Authorization for current committee members to complete their terms on their respective divisions' Student-Athlete Advisory Committees.

"Overall, the committee feels good about where it stands," said Janet M. Justus, NCAA director of education resources and staff liaison to the committee. "It is very pleased how the student-athlete voice is being incorporated into the new structure. However, the committee continues in its efforts to make its voice stronger."

In an unrelated matter, the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee reaffirmed its strong support for membership-sponsored proposals dealing with employment earnings of Division I student-athletes and a fourth season of competition for partial-qualifiers:

Specifically, Proposal No. 1-52 (as it appears in the Initial Publication of Proposed Legislation) would permit a partial qualifier to earn a fourth season of competition, provided that the student-athlete receives a bachelor's degree before beginning the fifth academic year following the student-athlete's initial, full-time enrollment.

Proposal Nos. 1-57 and 1-58 would exempt legitimate off-campus employment earnings from a Division I student-athlete's full grant-in-aid limit and from the institution's sport limitations.

Similar proposals regarding student-athlete employment earnings and a fourth season of competition for partial-qualifiers failed at the 1996 Convention.

The committee also supports an NCAA Council-sponsored proposal that would allow student-athletes to write for commercial and noncommercial publications without compensation. The legislation, which was proposed by the NCAA Communications Committee, was urged by the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee to allow student-athletes to write and publish athletics and nonathletics articles under their own names.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Student-Athlete Advisory Committee
August 16-17/Kansas City, Missouri

* Agreed with the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports' recommendations to (1) mandate that the first two spring football practices be noncontact; (2) change the current spring-practice schedule of 10 contact and five noncontact practices to five contact and 10 noncontact practices; and (3) ban the wearing of shoulder pads during noncontact practices.

* Participated in a focus group for the development of an "Understanding Diversity" component in the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program. The material is being developed by Ray C. Myers of MultiVersity Associates.

* Reviewed a mockup of the "How to Form a Student-Athlete Advisory Committee" brochure, which is scheduled to be distributed to the membership in late September.

* Noted that more than 750 institutions have submitted the form requesting the name of the administrator who works with the institution's student-athlete advisory committee.