The NCAA News - News Features

Division I group supports diversity proposals

The NCAA Division I transition Management Council supports a 1997 Convention proposal to establish minimal goals for gender and ethnic-minority representation on the division's governing bodies, as well as an effort by two conferences to make alteration of the process for achieving those goals more difficult.

The transition Management Council, which met December 4 in Kansas City, Missouri, expressed support for 1997 Convention Proposal No. 8, which is sponsored by the NCAA Council. It also supports the adoption of Proposal No. 8-1, an amendment-to-amendment sponsored by the Ivy Group and Southern Conference.

Proposal No. 8 calls for the 15-member Division I Board of Directors to include at least one ethnic-minority representative and at least one representative of each gender. The proposal specifies further that "a single member shall not be considered to meet both minimums."

It also calls for the 34-member Management Council to include representation comprising at least 20 percent ethnic minorities and at least 35 percent of each gender. The proposal also would establish a process for attaining the diversity goals.

The Council proposal calls for the process for attaining the diversity goals to be included in the Association's bylaws, where it could be modified in accordance with the new Division I legislative process. However, the Ivy Group and Southern Conference are seeking to establish the process as division-dominant legislation. If that effort succeeds, two-thirds of the Division I membership would be required to support any subsequent effort to alter the legislation.

The transition Management Council supports establishing the process for attaining diversity as division-dominant legislation.

Other proposals

Other restructuring proposals also were reviewed by the transition Management Council.

The transition group discussed the placement at the head of the Convention's restructuring legislation on Presidential Agenda Day a proposal to delay the effective date of restructuring from August 1, 1997, to February 1, 1998.

The proposal, which is opposed by both the Presidents Commission and Council, was placed there so that the membership could decide whether to delay restructuring before addressing detailed legislation related to the cabinet/committee structure.

The transition Management Council, however, is recommending to the Presidents Commission that it support moving the proposal to the end of the restructuring agenda. The transition group believes that delegates should act on proposals enacting details of restructuring before considering whether a delay in implementation is appropriate.

As for some of those details, the group reaffirmed its support of a Council-sponsored plan for selection of the chairs of the Division I governing bodies and four proposed cabinets (Proposal No. 9).

The transition Management Council also expressed support for a series of proposals that would make conferences responsible for the selection, rotation and removal of Divisions I-AA and I-AAA representatives of the Board of Directors and Management Council (Proposal Nos. 12 through 15).

Cabinet/committee structure

The transition Management Council reviewed proposed amendments to Proposal No. 28 -- which would establish Association-wide and division-specific committee structures -- and also discussed procedures for forming Division I cabinets and committees in anticipation of adoption of those structures.

The group agreed to support an amendment-to-amendment for Proposal No. 28 to specifically require appropriate representation of all Division I subdivisions on Association-wide committees. The Management Council or the Division I cabinets would be responsible for the selection of Division I representatives on those committees if Proposal No. 28 is adopted.

The transition Management Council also discussed such procedural details as establishing a timetable for selection of cabinet members and a means of achieving the minimum required representation of Divisions I-AA and I-AAA on the cabinets. The group agreed to seek review of those matters at conference meetings during the Convention and at a late-January meeting of conference commissioners.

In matters relating to committee appointments, the transition Management Council agreed to invite current Division I members of committees with time remaining in their terms to continue as members of the new structure's Association-wide committees. It also agreed that the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet should proceed following its creation in early 1997 to solicit nominations for September 1997 vacancies on sports committees.