The NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee (MOIC) used its January 28-30 meeting in Indianapolis to continue its research on the use of American Indian mascots, nicknames and imagery in intercollegiate sports.

The MOIC has been charged with undertaking a comprehensive review of the issue and submitting a report to the NCAA presidential bodies. Part of the MOIC's review will be accomplished through a solicitation of American Indian tribes and organizations, and input from NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committees and NCAA member institutions, particularly those that currently use American Indian mascots, nicknames or imagery.

"The MOIC has taken an impartial stance on this issue -- other than to say it certainly is one worthy of review from the NCAA presidential bodies -- until the group obtains additional research materials," said MOIC Chair Eugene Marshall Jr., the director of athletics at Ramapo College. "The committee believes more information is necessary to provide a better understanding of how the issue affects member schools and American Indians, and will lead us to recommendations that might remedy the concerns."

In addition to the three NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committees, student-athlete input will be obtained from conference and institutional SAACs. Also, the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct and the Divisions I, II and III championships groups will be asked to respond. A summary of the issue will be distributed later this month and the MOIC expects to have results compiled by its June meeting.

The MOIC's discussion of the issue included a presentation from St. Cloud State University President Roy H. Saigo, who has been outspoken on the issue and formally asked the NCAA to review the matter last year. Saigo's message to the MOIC was the same he gave to a group of Division II presidents during the NCAA Convention in January: that the use of American Indian mascots, nicknames and imagery is not appropriate in light of antidiscrimination policies, both at the university level and within the NCAA.

Football study

In addition to the American Indian mascot issue, the MOIC continued to research another topic of concern: the lack of diversity in the intercollegiate football coaching ranks. The NCAA Football Study Oversight Committee has asked that the MOIC be integrally involved with a review of the matter, and the MOIC has obliged with survey data compilation and completion of focus-group studies that may provide some insight on the perceived barriers that minorities face in the coaching profession.

The survey and focus groups allowed direct input from college and university presidents, athletics directors, and head and assistant football coaches. Results should be available for the MOIC's review in June, and at that time the group expects to formulate recommendations for the Football Study Oversight Committee to consider at its August meeting. In addition, the MOIC will ask the Division I Board of Directors in April to ramp up its awareness of the issue as the pressure mounts from external groups such as the Black Coaches Association and the Rainbow Coalition to effect change in the college coaching landscape.

In another action, the MOIC, meeting jointly with the Committee on Women's Athletics, worked to narrow down the selection of consultants who will deliver race, gender and sexual orientation workshops. Once the consultants are selected, a pilot workshop that offers those three components will be tested and refined before being offered to the NCAA membership for the first time at the 2003 Convention in Anaheim, California.

"This will be the first time that the membership can engage issues specific to race, gender and sexual orientation in an interactive format," Marshall said. "It's also important to note that these components will complement the fundamental diversity education material and not replace it. We think these new components will make the program we already have that much better."

Other highlights

Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee

January 28-30/Indianapolis

* Heard a presentation from the NCAA Academic Consultants regarding proposed changes to initial- and continuing-eligibility standards.

* Reviewed the success of the newly created NCAA Leadership Institute for Ethnic Minority Males and discussed recruitment strategies for the 2002 class of participants (applications for the Institute are due April 22).

* Review budgetary matters as part of the joint meeting with the Committee on Women's Athletics. Both committees will finalize budget priorities at their summer meetings before formulating combined budget requests at the 2003 joint meeting.

Women's summit urges coaching as profession

Though 13 organizations participated in the NCAA Summit on Athletics Opportunities for Minority Women January 30 in Indianapolis, the message coming out of the session was delivered with one voice.

That was the theme for the fourth annual summit -- that one voice should be used to send a consistent message regarding the importance of coaching as a profession.

The NCAA Summit on Athletics Opportunities for Minority Women is designed to address issues specific to minority women that may not be adequately addressed in general forums for either women or minorities. Last year's summit investigated the barriers minority women face in intercollegiate athletics, but this year the emphasis was on promoting the coaching profession to minority women as a way to overcome some of those barriers.

"We need to change the atmosphere for the field of coaching so that it is viewed as a profession and not as an avocation that is associated with just games," said Tim Flannery, an assistant director with the National Federation of State High School Associations.

During breakout sessions, representatives from the 13 sports organizations that participated in the summit brainstormed on ways to promote coaching and to make ethnic minority women who might be interested in coaching aware of the impact that coaches have on young people's lives.

Part of the discussion included a review of a matching- grant program to advance opportunities for minority women coaches. The program, developed by the Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee and the Committee on Women's Athletics, provides grants to coaches associations and other organizations with an interest in developing minority women coaches. The grants provide funds to attract, develop and retain minority women coaches on all levels.

During another breakout session, summit participants brainstormed on ways that the grants might be used most effectively, such as mentoring programs, coaching internships and graduate assistantships.

At the end of the session, each participating organization was asked to make one commitment this year that would promote coaching as a profession for minority women.

"Gatherings such as this have the potential to be more talk than action, but the participants in this summit have made it clear they want to think differently about ways to get things done more effectively," said Ron Stratten, the NCAA's vice-president for education services. "Having each organization commit to one action item guarantees that at least 13 direct activities will come out of this summit over the next year. We think that's significant."

Organizations represented at the NCAA Summit on Athletics Opportunities for Minority Women January 30 in Indianapolis:

American Volleyball Coaches Association

Black Coaches Association

Black Women in Sport Foundation

College Bowling USA

National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators

National Association of Girls and Women in Sport

National Fastpitch Coaches Association

National Federation of State High School Associations

NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee and Committee on Women's Athletics

United States Olympic Committee

USA Track and Field

Women's Basketball Coaches Association

Women's Sports Foundation