The NCAA News - News and Features

February 17, 1997

Division I meetings focus on commitment to assure diversity

Structural matters and the ongoing effort to assure diversity of representation dominated the first meeting of the NCAA Division I Management Council February 4.

Among the most notable actions taken was the election of University of Iowa athletics director Robert A. Bowlsby as the first chair of the Management Council (see related story).

But much of the discussion at the Management Council meeting, as well as a January 30 conference call of the NCAA Division I Board of Directors, had to do with achieving diversity of representation on the Management Council and in the four Division I cabinets.

The Division I Board of Directors, fulfilling its charge to make certain that the Management Council contains a diverse representation of the membership, determined that the slate of Division I-A selections was in need of an additional woman. The Division I-A conferences have appointed 13 men and five women (that is 28 percent female, which results in the overall Division I goal of 35 percent female not being met). The Division I-AA and I-AAA conference selections were approved.

The Board considered postponing the first meeting of the Management Council until a change was made in the Division I-A selections but chose instead to permit the meeting to continue, but with the understanding that Division I-A's voting allotment would be reduced by one throughout the meeting.

The Management Council selection process set forth in 1997 Convention Proposal No. 8 calls for the conferences to work out a solution themselves, which would be submitted to the Board for approval. If no alternative is submitted or if the Board does not approve the recommendation, the Board then would direct each Division I-A conference to submit a slate of four names, each including a woman and an ethnic minority, from which the I-A segment of the Management Council would be selected by the Board.

The first vote taken at the Management Council meeting was the election of a chair. On that vote, Iowa State University athletics director Eugene D. Smith (Big Twelve Conference) volunteered to not cast a vote, in keeping with the directive of the Board of Directors.

The nominees for chair included Bowlsby; Jeffrey H. Orleans, executive director of the Ivy Group; and Charlotte West, associate athletics director at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Bowlsby was elected over Orleans after West withdrew her name from consideration. Thereafter, Bowlsby did not cast a vote (normally, the chair would be a voting member of the group).

The primary purpose of the Management Council meeting was to review the conference selections for the four cabinets, which had been made by the subdivision groups of conferences in accordance with Convention Proposal No. 34. The cabinets are expected to have initial planning meetings soon.

As a result of a process approved by the Division I transition Board of Directors, the Board of Directors in its January 30 conference call appointed an eight-member Management Council subcommittee (subsequently named the Selection Review Committee) to review conference appointments to the cabinets and to review nominees for other Division I committees for recommendations to the full Management Council.

Those members are Linda Bruno, Atlantic 10 Conference (chair); Jeremy N. Foley, University of Florida, Southeastern Conference; Nancy R. Hamant, University of Cincinnati, Conference USA; Orby Moss Jr., Georgia State University, Trans America Athletic Conference; John C. Parry, Butler University, Midwestern Collegiate Conference; Charles Whitcomb, San Jose State University, Western Athletic Conference; Kelly Woodward, Northern Arizona University, Big Sky Conference; and Deborah A. Yow, University of Maryland, College Park, Atlantic Coast Conference.

In reviewing appointments to the four Division I cabinets, the Selection Review Committee determined that Divisions I-AA and I-AAA selections were acceptable in meeting the stated goals for the four cabinets in the aggregate, both with regard to gender and ethnic minorities. Division I-A was acceptable from a gender standpoint; however, only eight of 64 Division I-A positions on the four cabinets were filled with ethnic minorities.

In response, the Selection Review Committee recommended to the Management Council that the Division I-AA and I-AAA selections be approved and that the Division I-A conferences be directed to identify by February 14 five more ethnic-minority representatives for the four cabinets.

Until those changes are made, the committee recommended that Division I-A have five fewer votes on every cabinet. The latter recommendation was made to serve as an incentive to conferences to make the necessary changes; it is hoped that no cabinet will meet until the composition concerns have been addressed.

The Management Council subsequently changed the deadline to February 28 to permit the Division I-A conferences to work out the appropriate modifications to the selections, but otherwise approved the recommendation of the Selection Review Committee.

In a matter involving faculty athletics representation on a cabinet, an assistant conference commissioner had been placed in a position designated for a faculty athletics representative on the Championships/Competition Cabinet. The Selection Review Committee determined that the appointment was not appropriate.

The Management Council subsequently agreed and directed that the position be filled with a faculty athletics representative by February 28.

The Selection Review Committee also was authorized to recommend chairs for the four cabinets. While it determined that it would wait until the full Management Council and cabinets are identified before making its recommendations, it did ask each subdivision to submit a set of recommended individuals to chair each cabinet.

Ultimately, six chairs (those for the four cabinets, the Management Council and the Board of Directors) must be identified, with each subdivision being represented as chair of at least one of those bodies. Two of those selections already have been filled with I-A representatives: Bowlsby of the Management Council and Kenneth A. Shaw, chancellor of Syracuse University and chair of the Board of Directors. The Selection Review Committee will forward its recommendations to the NCAA Administrative Committee.

Other highlights