The Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee has done well since its inception to ensure that its voice is heard. Now, the SAAC is trying to ensure that its voice is recorded.

At a joint meeting between the SAAC and the Division I Management Council January 7, the SAAC requested that its members serving on Division I and Association-wide committees, as well as subcommittees of the two Division I cabinets, have voting rights.

It wasn't until this past year that the SAAC even had representation on those groups, but now that the SAAC has those representatives in place, the group is asking that they be more than just advisors.

The request was made as part of the SAAC's presentation to the Management Council on building a more trusting relationship between student-athletes and athletics administrators. As Jake Locklear, a member of the Division I SAAC from Stephen F. Austin State University, said during the presentation, "If the NCAA wants to promote student-athletes, then the heart of that should be giving student-athletes a vote in the legislative process."

Locklear and his colleagues pointed to last year's State of the Association address delivered by NCAA President Cedric W. Dempsey at the 2000 Convention in which Dempsey invoked the "four p's" as they relate to student-athletes: promote student-athletes through public awareness, protect them with standards of fairness and integrity, prepare them as leaders in society, and provide funding to help them with those goals.

"Who better to promote, protect, prepare and provide for student-athletes than fellow student-athletes who already have proven themselves as leaders on the field and in the classroom?" Locklear said, referring to student-athletes serving in SAAC roles. "Even the newly formed Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics has indicated that one of the keys in improving the culture of sports is keeping student-athletes at the heart of the decision-making process."

Increased credibility

The SAAC's request for voting rights follows a long line of student-athlete inclusion within the NCAA governance structure. Before the Association restructured in 1997, the SAAC's voice was heard only once per year, through a representative speaking from the Convention floor. That representation has grown now that the Division I SAAC has been permitted to have members sit in on Division I and Association-wide committee meetings, but the SAAC believes its credibility is compromised when votes are recorded without them.

"You've protected us by providing SAACs at the conference and campus levels, and you've prepared us by providing representation at the committee level," said Joseph Whitt, a football student-athlete from Auburn University, "but now it's time to promote with a vote."

Division I currently permits student-athletes to serve as members of Association-wide committees, the Management Council, the two cabinets, committees and subcommittees in an advisory capacity (though a handful of subcommittees do already allow Division I representatives to vote). Division II SAAC members hold an annual joint meeting with the Division II Management Council to discuss legislative issues, and the Division II SAAC also has a voice on the Convention floor and serves on selected task force committees and Association-wide committees without enjoying voting privileges. In Division III, two student-athletes serve on the Management Council as voting members, and student-athletes also have voting rights on committees on which they serve. Division III student-athletes do not, however, have voting rights on the six Association-wide committees.

For SAAC representatives to vote on Association-wide committees, that request would have to be approved by all three NCAA divisions, acting independently.

The request appeared to be well-received by Council members, though they did ask that committees be consulted first before the Council acts formally at its April meeting. SAAC members agreed, saying they would distribute a legislative proposal to all the committees involved and include their reaction in the SAAC's April report to the Council.

The SAAC pushed passionately for voting rights, believing that such rights would actually help athletics administrators encourage a strengthening of the SAAC infrastructure. Brian Dillon, a golf student-athlete at the University of the Pacific (California) and outgoing chair of the SAAC, said he thought that voting rights would give athletics administrators at campuses and conferences that do not have a legitimate SAAC structure an incentive to establish one.

"We know that the national SAAC has grown into a very credible group," he said. "We're constantly working to strengthen that credibility. If we were to be granted voting rights at the committee level, people within the Division I governance structure will hold us accountable. And once presidents, athletics directors and senior woman administrators see that we have that voting power, we'll get more help in strengthening our infrastructure at the conference and campus level because our representation will be that much more meaningful."

Dillon said the SAAC did not ask for voting rights at the Council or cabinet level because SAAC members understood the delicate balance among subdivision voting lines, and that SAAC votes might disrupt that balance. Acquiring voting rights at the committee level, though, would represent a valuable steppingstone in the ascension of student-athlete influence within the governance structure.

"We come to committee meetings with the knowledge, insight and involvement that is expected of any other committee member," said Crystal Hudak, a volleyball student-athlete from Drexel University. "It is only right that we would have the ability to vote as any other committee member would."

Trust gap issues

The second annual meeting between the SAAC and Management Council also featured an update from the Council's ad hoc subcommittee on student-athlete issues. That group was appointed in July to, among other things, address a perceived "trust gap" between student-athletes and athletics administrators and coaches.

Student-athlete voting status

Division III-- Two student-athletes serve on Management Council as voting members. Student-athletes also have voting rights on Division III committees on which they serve. Division III SAAC also has a voice on the Convention floor.