The NCAA News - News & Features

Waiver review sought for two-year transfers with learning disabilities

Meeting September 11 in Jackson, Wyoming, the Two-Year College Relations Committee discussed students who receive an accommodation from a junior college because of a learning disability. Such actions may allow the students to be eligible for athletics while taking fewer credits than required for the rest of the student body.

A similar waiver procedure is in place for student-athletes enrolled at NCAA institutions.

However, requirements for transfer from a two-year college to a four-year school are based strictly on credits and cannot be adjusted for students who receive an accommodation for a learning disability.

In light of recent discussions between the NCAA and the U.S. Department of Justice regarding initial-eligibility requirements for disabled student-athletes, the committee noted that it is important to address this issue and forwarded its concerns to the Academic Requirements Committee for consideration.

The Two-Year College Relations Committee also continued to examine correspondence and distance-learning courses taken by junior college student-athletes. Such courses may apply toward transfer requirements, but they lend themselves more easily to fraud than classes taken in person.

The committee examined the results of a recent survey that showed that most junior college transcripts do not indicate whether a course was taken on campus or from a different location. It noted that advances in telecommunications and other technology are increasing the opportunity for distance learning and that such courses will become more common in the future.

The committee agreed that NCAA institutions must try to ensure the quality of the transfer credits they accept by asking recruits if any of their credits were earned by correspondence or distance learning.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Two-Year College Relations Committee
September 11/Jackson, Wyoming

* Asked the NCAA Council to reconsider the decision to federate the Two-Year College Relations Committee when restructuring goes into effect. The committee would like to remain Association-wide because representatives from the National Junior College Athletic Association and the Community College League of California, which are ex-officio members, find it beneficial to interact with all divisions. The Council will consider this request in October.

* Recommended the continuation of joint meetings with representatives of the NCAA Academic Requirements Committee to review academic issues relating to two-year college transfers.

* Supported an NCAA Recruiting Committee recommendation that prospective student-athletes not be allowed to visit a four-year college as part of a paid visit to a two-year college. The committee agreed that this practice provides a recruiting advantage for four-year colleges located near two-year colleges.

* Recommended that the commissioner of the Community College League of California represent the committee in the Citizenship Through Sport initiative. This recommendation will be forwarded to the NCAA staff for consideration.

* Received a preliminary report from Gregory P. Smith, vice-president of information resources and planning at the Community College of Denver (Colorado) and a consultant to the NCAA Research Committee, on a longitudinal study he is conducting to track the academic performance of student-athletes who transfer from two-year colleges to four-year colleges and how it relates to status as a qualifier or nonqualifier from high school.