The NCAA's diversity-education initiative that began as a broad-based campaign six years ago is gaining grass-roots momentum.

The Association has conducted diversity-education workshops since 1996 to provide a foundation in the basic concepts of diversity and help workshop participants develop awareness and appreciation of diversity issues. Those workshops began on a limited basis, being offered initially at NCAA gatherings such as conference meetings, governance meetings, coaches association conventions and at the NCAA Convention.

But now, the program that began as a seed is developing into the tree organizers had hoped for, with workshops being offered at campuses nationwide on a first-request basis.

The campus diversity-education workshops are designed for either half-day or full-day sessions and can accommodate 25 to 40 participants. The workshops are open to student-athletes, university athletics department staff and other university personnel who work directly with the athletics department. The NCAA provides a skilled facilitator and training materials at no cost to the institution. The only outlay for the school is the facility and lodging for the facilitator.

The demand already has been high, as more than 100 institutions applied for the workshop at their campuses during the recent two-week application period. Twelve institutions have been selected so far, with more to be added later this spring.

Several already have been conducted, including one at Auburn University that attracted an overflow crowd. Janice Robinson, Life Skills coordinator at Auburn, said the morning session targeting administrators and coaches prompted an even larger turnout for the afternoon session for student-athletes.

"I know the ideal number is about 40," Robinson said, "but once the morning session was complete, coaches were telling their players to attend in the afternoon. We'll be sure to have additional sessions next year in order to accommodate the demand, especially from the students."

Rochelle Collins, NCAA director of professional development, said the workshops have grown because they address a need.

"Diversity awareness makes sense for any institution, and particularly for athletics departments and teams that tend to be composed of a diversified group of individuals anyway," Collins said. "The workshops help university personnel build the bridges that are necessary for student-athletes and coaches to enhance organizational productivity."

Robinson agreed that the issue of diversity isn't a foreign concept to student-athletes, who typically are part of a diverse makeup on teams anyway.

"They already are aware that they have to get along with their teammates in order to be successful," Robinson said. "But bringing the workshop to the athletics department as a whole gave our students an opportunity to discuss some things, and I think they learned a lot from it. It's not so much of a racial issue; it's really just an opportunity to talk and mingle with students of diverse backgrounds and interests."

At Millersville University of Pennsylvania, Women's Athletics Director Doreen McAfee said she scheduled a half-day session to get more of a commitment, but afterward, people said they wanted more.

"Our campus has a major commitment to diversity and social equity, so for us, the idea of a diversity workshop wasn't new, but this one opened eyes a little differently."

McAfee noted that different areas were addressed other than race, such as different student-athletes who don't fit the traditional norm, which she thought was beneficial.

"We go to a lot of diversity seminars, but this one seemed to be comprehensive and not just geared toward athletics," she said. "That was good because we had more than just athletics administrators in the room. I wanted to have participants from across the campus, and I thought this seminar didn't bore the vice-presidents, provosts or other administrators."

McAfee said she was pleased that the seminar addresses diversity on a life-skills scale, and not just from an athletics perspective. She said the more components that can be added in that regard, the better.

The NCAA's Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee and the Committee on Women's Athletics are overseeing the development of new workshops addressing race, gender and sexual orientation that will be added to expand the NCAA diversity-education program. Those new workshops are scheduled to be offered at the 2003 NCAA Convention.

The NCAA also will continue to offer diversity-education workshops at select sites in addition to the ones on campus, including at the Title IX Seminar, the Black Coaches Association annual convention, the NCAA Regional Rules-Compliance Seminars and the Black Women in Sport Foundation meetings. But, as Collins said, taking the workshops directly to campuses will reach even more of the people the program was originally intended to serve.

"This was how the program was envisioned," Collins said. "We wanted it to develop branches that would touch more constituencies. The on-campus element is another piece of that puzzle."

For more information on the campus workshops, go to the Education Outreach section of NCAA Online (www.ncaa.org), then click on "Diversity Programs."

On-campus offerings

Institutions that have been selected to conduct diversity-education workshops on their campuses:

University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff

Auburn University

Bowdoin College

California Polytechnic State University

Case Western Reserve University

University of Denver

Kenyon College

Longwood College

Millersville University of Pennsylvania

University of Missouri, Columbia

Portland State University

St. Cloud State University