National Collegiate Athletic Association

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The NCAA News -- October 12, 1998

Division III -- Awards panel eyes enforcement plan

The Division III Financial Aid and Awards Committee discussed several issues at its September 28-29 meeting pertaining to the review of awards of circumstance and nonathletics achievement awards.

All of the committee's recommendations will be forwarded to the Division III Management Council, which will review them at its October 19-20 meeting in Indianapolis.

In addition to reviewing the awards submitted by numerous institutions, the committee recommended approval of a five-year resubmission process for awards of circumstance and nonathletics achievement awards. The committee recommended that the five-year resubmission be conducted in conjunction with institutional self-studies.

The committee reasoned that resubmitting the awards periodically would be necessary since institutions are continually creating new awards, and the committee further reasoned that submitting the awards at the time of an institution's self-study would permit institutions to comply without being overburdened.

In another action, the committee recommended that NCAA enforcement staff contact those institutions that have not responded to requests for submissions of awards by September 15, 1999. The committee noted that several institutions have not responded, and that compliance needs to be ensured to uphold the integrity of the Division III financial aid legislation and in order for the awards review process to be consistently applied to all Division III institutions. The committee further recommended that a secondary violation procedure be established for noncompliance with NCAA Bylaws 15.4.6.3 and 15.4.6.4.

In another action, the committee recommended that provisional members be required to submit awards of circumstance and nonathletics achievement awards to the financial aid committee for approval no later than the institutions' fourth year of provisional membership.

In other action, the committee:

  • Discussed legislative Proposal No. 2-32 regarding employment earnings and recommended that the proposal language should include state work-study in addition to federal work-study.

  • Discussed the NCAA interpretation prohibiting the employment of enrollment management personnel in an institution's athletics department. The committee recommended that a clarification be issued to differentiate between enrollment management personnel working primarily in admissions and those working primarily in financial aid.

  • Noted that the final proofs of the Division III Guide to Financial Aid are under review and that the guide should be distributed to the membership and posted on the Association's Web site this fall.

  • Noted that it will discuss the following topics at the 1999 NCAA Convention: the status of the review process for awards of circumstance and nonathletics achievement awards; financial aid from outside sources; results of the financial aid survey; and future legislation.