Responsibility for review and development of a wide variety of programs benefiting student-athletes, institutional athletics staffs and even the general student population will pass to other groups now that the Division III Initiatives Task Force has wrapped up three years of work with a final meeting September 16 in Indianapolis.

As it has during its previous meetings, the task force heard presentations about and reviewed a variety of programs -- all touching on some aspect of the Division III strategic plan and three of its priority areas: student-athlete welfare, diversity, or membership education and communication.

But the task force also spent significant time discussing what still needs to be accomplished in Division III.

"The purpose of this last meeting was to ask ourselves, what were we trying to accomplish, what did we accomplish, and what yet needs to be accomplished," said John Biddiscombe, director of athletics at Wesleyan University (Connecticut) and chair of the task force.

Many of the task force's responsibilities will be transferred to the Division III Strategic Planning Subcommittee, a joint subcommittee of the Division III Presidents and Management Councils. In addition to transferring oversight and evaluation of programs to that subcommittee, the task force is forwarding some advice as the initiatives program enters its fourth year.

Task force members repeatedly stressed during their discussions that efforts must continue and in some cases improve to ensure that student-athletes, coaches and administrators at Division III institutions and conferences know about the programs' availability, and that funds continue to be directed into areas where there is both demonstrated interest and need for support.

The task force also is urging flexibility in administering the various programs.

"I think the most important point that came out of the meeting is that the Strategic Planning Subcommittee, in administering this program, needs to think about being more flexible in the way the moneys are awarded -- both the size of the grant and the term, whether it's one year or two years or multiple-year -- and that there be more of an entrepreneurial spirit in using a portion of the money -- perhaps an open-ended amount with an open-ended period of time, depending on the nature of the proposal," Biddiscombe said.

In fact, task force members indicated a desire that significant amounts of funds be allocated to initiatives that address issues in creative ways, and aim to "transform" rather than merely "enrich" Division III and its constituent groups.

"These larger sums of money, with more flexibility, will create transformation, rather than just identify and address an issue," Biddiscombe said.

Task force members suggested a few possible subjects to address through new initiatives, including efforts to make athletics more a part of campus life, creation of programs that benefit the general student population and therefore student-athletes within that population, and efforts to increase presidential involvement in Division III governance.

Such funding likely would be provided through Division III initiatives grants, which will continue to be targeted at educational and professional development in the areas of student-athlete welfare issues, membership education of campus leaders, and diversity. Those grants currently are limited to $10,000 per institution, or $25,000 for a collaborative effort among multiple institutions or conferences.

Beginning next year, initiatives grants and other funds also will be targeted at a fourth area of interest: promotion of Division III's identity.

Several specific ways of promoting the identity were reviewed by the task force, including sponsoring a bi-annual information-sharing meeting between Division III conference sports information directors and NCAA staff members and encouraging institutional efforts to inform local groups and media about Division III philosophies and objectives.

While the Strategic Planning Subcommittee and other groups assuming the task force's responsibilities still need to address the question of what remains to be accomplished in Division III, Biddiscombe believes the task force accomplished its own objectives.

"The primary thing the task force accomplished was in breaking new ground for educational programs for Division III -- and for all the divisions. I don't believe there ever had been an effort on such a wide scale, and with so many resources supplied, to try to develop new programming for the areas that were identified by strategic planning."

A unique aspect, he adds, is that institutions and conferences have been provided with authority over -- and therefore a vested interest in the success of -- that programming.

"If you look at most of the prior educational programming done by the NCAA, it was centered in and funded and executed by the NCAA staff," Biddiscombe said. "This, really, is a whole different kind of effort; the membership submits to the NCAA their suggestions and ideas of how a program could be conducted to address these issues, and then the membership would be responsible for and would coordinate those programs."