The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics (CWA) has determined it once again will ask the Divisions II and III Management Councils to approve rugby as an emerging sport for women.

At its meeting January 28-29, the CWA discussed rugby along with a number of other issues, including Division I certification, the national office gender-equity plan and an upcoming NCAA brochure describing the role of senior woman administrators in intercollegiate athletics. The committee also met jointly with the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee (MOIC).

While each division of the NCAA is at a different place in the consideration of rugby as an emerging sport for women, the CWA recommended that the sport continue to move forward for approval in all three divisions.

There need not be agreement among the three divisions when it comes to declaring a sport "emerging." For example, equestrian is an emerging sport in Division I but not in Divisions II or III. However, CWA members believe that female student-athletes in all divisions would benefit from making rugby an emerging sport.

The CWA previously had recommended to the Management Councils in all three divisions that women's rugby be approved as an emerging sport. However, the three Councils came out in different places at their fall meetings.

The Division III Management Council declined to recommend it and asked that the CWA examine health and safety information with the possibility of adding such criteria to the emerging-sport process.

The Division II Management Council approved rugby in concept and agreed to look at draft legislation for the 2003 NCAA Convention, but it also expressed concern that more health and safety information about the sport be made available for review. The Division II Presidents Council also expressed reservations and asked that health and safety information be provided.

The Division I Management Council gave initial approval to rugby as an emerging sport and circulated for comment Proposal No. 01-127. The comment period ended in January. The Council is expected to undertake its second review of the legislation at its April meeting, where it may forward the proposal to the Division I Board of Directors for adoption.

Injury data not available

The CWA heard a presentation regarding rugby from Randall W. Dick, NCAA assistant director of health and safety and primary staff liaison to the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports.

Dick noted that the competitive-safeguards committee had discussed rugby as an emerging sport at its December meeting, noting that the committee did not have access to much information regarding the incidence of injury. Dick also explained to the CWA that because rugby is not yet an NCAA championship sport, it has not been subject to the NCAA Injury Surveillance System (ISS) by which many NCAA championship sports are monitored. Thus, the same type of information on injuries that is available for football or men's and women's soccer, for example, is simply not available to the NCAA for rugby at this time.

Dick reported that a literature review by NCAA staff suggested that the injury rates in rugby are similar to those of other collision sports. The competitive-safeguards committee had noted that since it is a collision sport, rugby would require medical resources similar to other collision sports.

The CWA declined to add criteria to the emerging sport process that would require a health and safety review before the sport is recommended to the NCAA governance structure.

Members of the CWA indicated that they believed the committee's job was to identify opportunities, not necessarily to provide or review health and safety data.

The CWA noted that the sport met the established criteria for an emerging sport with 10 letters of recommendation from the membership, and it also noted that the decision of whether to sponsor rugby as a varsity sport would be up to each individual institution.

The CWA also noted that once enough institutions add an emerging sport for it to have a championship, the sport may be assessed through the ISS, which is presently in place for selected championship sports.

Gender-equity plans

In other action, the CWA reviewed the issue of gender-equity plans as they related to Division I athletics certification and also Divisions II and III Institutional Self-Study Guides. The CWA also heard a report from Judy Sweet, NCAA senior woman administrator and vice-president for championships, regarding the ongoing process of constructing the national office gender-equity plan.

The CWA encouraged the Division I Committee on Athletics Certification to take a strong position on institutions that have failed either to fulfill stated gender-equity plans from a previous certification cycle or to provide a viable alternative toward meeting gender-equity goals.

The CWA heard a report on the current status of such situations and noted that it believes institutions that had failed in their gender-equity efforts should not be passed forward for certification. The CWA noted that its members believe strongly that all institutions should have written gender-equity plans and should be held accountable for those plans.

The CWA also noted that the committee had incorporated language for institutions under review in the next certification cycle regarding providing for a "safe environment for all student-athletes, including those with diverse sexual orientations." The CWA applauded that development as one that would assist in dealing with homophobia and student-athlete safety.

The CWA is in the process of reviewing information regarding Division II and III gender-equity requirements as a part of the Institutional Self-Study Guides used in those divisions. The committee would like to see a requirement that written plans be a part of the Division II and III processes of self study, much like they are required in Division I as part of athletics certification.

Other highlights

Committee on Women's Athletics
January 28-29/Indianapolis

* Agreed to co-author a letter with the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee to the NCAA Executive Committee chair requesting careful consideration of gender and minority representation on the NCAA president search committee; the committees also will request diversity in the final pool of applicants for the president position.

* Reviewed a final draft of the NCAA senior woman administrator brochure.

* Reviewed the Division I Board of Directors Task Force vision statement and asked that the group consider amending the statement to include a separate item related to cultural diversity and gender diversity.

* Received an update on various homophobia educational initiatives that the Association has conducted and also those that are planned.