NACWAA program enriches opportunities for women

Forty-one women participated in the 7th annual NACWAA/HERS Institute for Administrative Advancement last month at Bryn Mawr College.

The NACWAA/HERS Institute is the first of its kind exclusively for women in athletics. The goal of the institute is to better prepare and position women for executive-level positions in intercollegiate athletics administration. In the seven years of its existence, 221 women have attended.

The NCAA provides grants to the institute, some of which are used to reduce the registration fees for all attendees and some of which are used to provide scholarships for attendees.

An increase in NCAA funding will permit NACWAA/HERS to expand to two sites next year -- Bryn Mawr and the University of Denver.

The 2001 NACWAA/HERS class was composed of the following individuals: Themy Adachi, Mills College; Gail Barksdale, College of Staten Island; Danielle Barney, Lock Haven University; Karen Borbee, Swarthmore College; Kelley Brennan, University of New York at Buffalo; Natalie Butler, University of Chicago; Amy Buxbaum, Juniata College; Rochelle Collins, NCAA; Leslie Danehy, Cabrini College; Kathleen Dawson, Lake-Sumter Community College; Myra Fishback, State University of New York at Stony Brook; Bevin Hartnett, Ivy Group; Andrea Hink, Ithaca College; Amy Huchthausen, Missouri Valley Conference; Julie Kline, University of La Verne; Heather Lawrence, University of Florida; Kara Maicher, University of Dayton; Germaine McAuley, Delaware State University; Louise McCleary, Vassar College; Nancy Meyer, Calvin College; Kerry Nordman, Stetson University; Ellen O'Connor, Santa Barbara City College; Linda O'Keefe, Sinclair Community College; Kristin Parnell, Emerson College; Candice Poiss, The Sage Colleges; Susan Powers, Rhodes University; Kerry Quinn, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Christa Racine, Drew University; Billie Jo Reynolds, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Robin Reynolds, Santa Clara University; Kristen Ruffo, Lenior-Rhyne College; Vanessa Seljeskog, Macalester College; Lorri Slesh, John Carroll University; Nicole Smith, Bryn Mawr College; Julie Soriero, Colorado College; Suzanne Truitt, University of Kentucky; Krissy Turner, Monmouth University; Kathy Turpin, Barry University; Wendi Weimer, Kenyon College; Corrinne Wright, Syracuse University; and Lisa Yenush, Salve Regina University.

Lude wins Toner Award

The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame recently announced that Mike Lude, a former athletics director at Auburn University, the University of Washington and Kent State University, has been selected to receive the organization's 2001 John L. Toner Award.

The award is presented annually to an athletics director who has demonstrated superior administrative abilities and shown outstanding dedication to college athletics, particularly college football.

"Mike has contributed immensely to collegiate athletics as an assistant football coach, head coach and athletics director," said Jon F. Hanson, chair of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame.

"He gained national recognition as one of the most respected administrators in the country."

The award will be presented at the foundations award luncheon December 11 in New York City.

Lude, who is still active as a speaker and consultant, played a major role on the NCAA Post-
season Football Committee, the NCAA Football Rules Committee and as executive director of the Blockbuster Bowl.

-- Compiled by Kay Hawes

Number Crunching

Looking back

July 1999 -- The NCAA national office staff relocates from Overland Park, Kansas, to Indianapolis. "This is an exciting day for the NCAA," Association President Cedric W. Dempsey says of the staff's arrival on July 27. The new office building in the Indiana capital city's White River State Park is a four-story, 140,000-square-foot facility. Still under construction is the NCAA's Hall of Champions, adjoining the NCAA headquarters building and scheduled to open in February 2000, and the headquarters for the soon-to-be relocated National Federation of State High School Associations. "We are moving our base of operations into a world-class facility that will benefit the membership for years to come," Dempsey says. (The NCAA News, August 2, 1999)

July 1992 -- The NCAA Gender-Equity Task Force conducts its first meeting and identifies an increase in the opportunities for women rather than a decrease in opportunities for men as a primary objective. To accomplish that, the task force believes it may be beneficial to study the ratio between scholarships and squad sizes, and that more creativity should be employed in recruiting female student-athletes. The task force also cites the need to develop emerging sports for women. (The NCAA News, July 22, 1992)

July 1952 -- NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers moves the NCAA national office from Chicago to Kansas City, Missouri, the largest metropolitan area nearest the geographic center of the country. The office is housed in the Fairfax Building before being moved to the Midland Building at 12th and Baltimore. ("NCAA: The Voice of College Sports")

"What has the folding of the AIAW done? On the positive side, it's opened up recruiting, which is one of the main reasons why a lot of people wanted to go NCAA. That's a factor that bothered me. The AIAW discriminated against the athlete who couldn't afford to visit a school.

"Negatively, I think it's sad to see what women worked hard for for 10 years go down the tube. The AIAW was established by women across the country who wanted to give women a chance to compete when no one else was interested."

Barbara Camp, women's athletics director at Southern Methodist University, in the "Opinions Out Loud" section of the July 14, 1982, NCAA News.