The NCAA News - News and Features

August 3, 1998

Regional diversity seminars experience successful debut

The first NCAA regional diversity education seminar conducted July 15-16 in Indianapolis was well-received, and registration has been reopened for a similar seminar August 17-18 in San Jose, California.

Featured speakers at the Indianapolis seminar included Harvey Coleman, president and founder of Coleman Management Consultants, and Ray C. Myers, senior consultant with the Spellman and Johnson Group.

Participants discussed diversity and learned about changing organizational culture to create an environment that is supportive of human and organizational differences.

Those who attended the seminar praised it as an efficient, effective workshop.

"As an athletics director, I feel I'm enlightened and I feel that we run an athletics program that is sensitive to all of our employees, but this workshop took my sensitivity to a higher level," said Laing E. Kennedy, director of athletics at Kent State University. "It has given me what I would call opportunities and challenges to take back to my colleagues here at work."

Kennedy also pointed out that the seminar ended up being a good use of his time. "In relation to other seminars, I would rank this as one of the best, and I would definitely encourage my colleagues to attend," he said.

Andrea Myers, director of athletics at Indiana State University, said she plans to incorporate some of the training into staff meetings at her facility.

"I came away with a lot of good information," Myers said. "We plan to implement a diversity segment in each of our staff meetings to better educate all of our coaches and administrative staff about diversity."

Participants developed their own action plans to take back to their universities.

"The purpose was to develop a plan to address some of the challenges each of them faced on their own campus in relation to diversity -- not just in athletics per se, but on the entire campus," said Donnetta Moorman, NCAA professional development coordinator.

Moorman said the training also focused on a team approach to bringing about diversity. "Usually athletics and academics approach it separately," she said. "We wanted to encourage more of an integrated approach."

Moorman will be following up with the individuals who attended, offering assistance in locating resources or simply answering questions.

Moorman said she was pleased to see that not only was the class well-attended but it met the staff's other goals as well.

"The first goal was to reach the major decision makers, and we were successful in that regard," she said.

"The second goal was to have attendees analyze their facilities and develop the ability to articulate the issues there. The third goal was to develop their skills so they could go back with their action plan and begin to resolve some of these issues."

Stanley D. Johnson, NCAA director of professional development, initiated diversity training within the Association. He said diversity training is becoming much more meaningful to the membership.

"We are progressing beyond the awareness level and developing effective action plans that will enhance our productivity," Johnson added.

The next regional diversity education seminar will be held July 29-30 in Charlotte, North Carolina. That seminar is filled to capacity and has a long waiting list, but interested parties may now register for the San Jose seminar. For registration information, contact Moorman at dmoorman@ncaa.org. Registration in all the seminars is limited to 40 participants.

Future opportunities to attend a regional diversity seminar will be on the horizon. "This is the beginning of an ongoing series," Moorman said. "And we thought it went extremely well."