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Administrative Committee minutes

1. Acting for the Council, the Administrative Committee:

a. Reviewed and approved legislation sponsored by the Council for the 1997 Convention.

b. Received as information a summary of membership reclassifications effective September 1, 1996.

c. As recommended by the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, agreed to sponsor a proposal to amend the appropriate provisions of Bylaws 14, 18, 30 and 31 to authorize the Association to drug test student-athletes who test positive by another athletics drug-testing organization.

d. Reaffirmed the position of the Academic Requirements Committee relative to Bylaw 14.3.5.3.1 (grade-point average computation) that even with the new initial-eligibility sliding scale, it is not permissible to round a student-athlete's overall or core-curriculum high-school grade-point average, regardless of the number of digits to which the computation is carried; and noted that when the sliding scale was introduced, it was the intent of the Academic Requirements Committee that student-athletes would be required to meet the grade-point average threshold in a core curriculum without rounding the grade-point average.

e. Asked the Academic Requirements Committee to develop written criteria for determining, per Bylaw 14.5.4.4.4, whether a two-year college degree is academic rather than vocational or technical in nature.

f. Considered the January 5, 1996, Council interpretation that once a final initial-eligibility certification decision has been issued by the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse, a nonqualifier may not practice during the temporary certification period, even if potential eligibility issues continue to exist; agreed to temporarily revise the interpretation to specify that a student-athlete who has an initial-eligibility waiver request in progress may continue to practice until the eligibility question is disposed of by the Council Subcommittee on Initial-Eligibility Waivers; further, such students may receive room and board until the first day of classes; agreed to review this interpretation at its October 1996 or January 1997 meeting.

2. Acting for the Executive Committee:

a. Realigned Le Moyne College from the Northeast to New England region for purposes of selection to the Division II Women's Soccer Championship.

b. Directed the Women's Softball Rules Committee to maintain the softball bat specifications and rules under which the NCAA women's softball championships currently are conducted (i.e., the Amateur Softball Association rule) until such time as research and testing to develop a specific standard have been completed.

3. Report of actions taken by the executive director per Constitution 4.3.2.

a. Acting for the Executive Committee:

Approved a recommendation from the Division I Men's Ice Hockey Committee that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institution receive its full 10 percent honorarium for hosting the 1996 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship East regional.

b. Acting for the Council:

(1) Granted requests from California State University, Fresno; University of Florida; Long Beach State University; Louisiana State University; University of Miami (Florida); Miami University (Ohio); Saint Louis University; Seton Hall University; and the University of Utah to temporarily replace coaches in the sports of men's and women's basketball and women's softball.

(2) Granted a waiver per Bylaw 14.1.7.3 to permit a student-athlete to participate in NCAA championships in the sport of track and field following her last term of eligibility.

(3) Granted waivers per Bylaw 14.7.6.1-(c) to permit student-athletes from various institutions to participate in competition involving national teams in the sports of basketball, soccer, and track and field.

(4) Granted waivers per Bylaw 14.7.6.2-(b) to permit student-athletes from various institutions to participate in all-star foreign tours through Athletes in Action (Australia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Germany, Poland, South Africa and Spain); through Basketball Camps of America (Venezuela); through the Big East Conference (France, Germany and Italy); through the Big Ten Conference (Italy); through California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (China); through the College of Saint Rose (Spain); through Long Island University (Barbados); through News Release Basketball (Belgium, Germany and Switzerland); through People to People Sports Committee (Belgium, Holland, Italy, St. Kitts and Turkey); though Sports Ambassadors (Romania); through Wagner College (Canada); and through Fred Crowel (England, Ireland, Isle of Mann and Scotland).

(5) Granted waivers per Bylaw 16.13.1 to permit institutions to provide incidental expenses in these situations:

(a) To student-athletes to attend funerals of members of the student-athletes' families.

(b) To student-athletes to return home to be with family members who were terminally ill, seriously injured or hospitalized.

(c) To a student-athlete to attend the funeral of a former teammate.

(d) To student-athletes to attend ceremonies where the student-athletes will be honored.

(e) To student-athletes to replace items stolen during an auto theft and from the team's locker room.

(f) To provide flowers to a student-athlete's mother.

(g) To provide flowers to a student-athlete's father.

(h) To student-athletes to attend funerals of teammates or members of teammates' families.