The first meeting of the NCAA Foreign Student Records Committee was dominated by discussion related to proposed Division II amateurism legislation.

Previously known as the NCAA Consultants on Foreign Student Records, the group met for the first time in its role as a free-standing NCAA committee September 15-17 in Indianapolis.

The members of the new committee are: Helen Burland, International Education Specialists; Todd Colvard, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis; Donald Delgado, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Kevin Kehl, Abilene Christian University; Barbara Maryak, University of Bridgeport; Joel Slocum, Education International; Bernard Sullivan, Long Island University-Brooklyn Campus; and Robert Watkins, University of Texas at Austin.

The Division II Amateurism Project Team has recommended a proposal that would charge an athlete with a season of competition during each calendar year of participation in outside competition after high-school graduation and before initial full-time collegiate enrollment. The Division II Management Council and Presidents Council have supported the proposal, and the Division II membership will vote on the legislation at the 2001 Convention.

While it is relatively easy to determine a prospective student-athlete's high-school graduation date in the U.S. educational system, it can be difficult to make the determination of when secondary education ends for international students.

Consequently, even though the vote on the legislation is still three months away, the new committee has begun its review of the time frames for the hundreds of certificates prospective foreign student-athletes can earn. The committee is focusing on countries from which 10 or more persons submitted secondary education records with the NCAA Initial-Eligibility Clearinghouse in 1999. That translates into more than 150 countries and approximately 500 certificates to be studied.

Each of the committee members was given a number of certificates to cover. The group will convene via conference call sometime in November to review its work up to that point.

In other business, the committee:

Discussed how the shift from British to Chinese control of Hong Kong and from U.S. control to self-rule in Panama will affect secondary education transcripts and grading.

Reviewed new documents and grading scales that may necessitate changes to the next edition of the NCAA Guide to International Academic Standards for Athletics Eligibility.