While members of the Division III Presidents Council will be working harder than ever to engage presidents in the future of the division discussions this spring and summer, they also will be saying goodbye to a colleagues who has worked hard to encourage presidential involvement in the governance process.

Bette Landman, president of Arcadia University and former chair of the Division III Presidents Council, recently announced that she would retire in June 2004. Landman has been president of Arcadia, formerly Beaver College, since 1985, when she became the first woman to lead the institution.

Landman, who served on the Presidents Council from 1999 to 2002, also served on the NCAA Executive Committee and the Executive Committee Subcommittee on Gender and Diversity Issues.

During her time this past year as chair of the Division III Presidents Council, Landman also served on the Association-wide search committee for the new NCAA president. Both roles took a tremendous amount of time and effort, particularly for a chief executive officer who is known for her attention to detail and emphasis on careful analysis.

"Bette assumed leadership roles in Division III at a critical time in the life of the NCAA and of the division," said Stanley Caine, president of Adrian College and a former member of the Presidents Council and Management Council who served with Landman.

"She represented the division in the very important search for a new president of the organization, and she also has taken a leading role in the effort to increase presidential participation in Division III governance. Both of these tasks have required a commitment of substantial time, talent and energy. Everyone who is interested in the welfare of student-athletes and the health of the NCAA owes her a debt of gratitude."

Kevin LaGree, president of Simpson College and current vice-chair of the Presidents Council, said that Landman's style and dedication to the division have helped more presidents take an active role.

"Bette Landman's leadership of Division III stemmed directly, in my view, from her own caring competence," LaGree said. "Bette came to every meeting thoroughly prepared, having obviously studied the issues carefully and fully. She frequently demonstrated her love of teaching by patiently explaining items facing the Division III Presidents Council in a way that brought everyone into the conversation. Indeed, she obviously values active, full engagement."

Jeanie Watson, president of Nebraska Wesleyan University and a member of the Division III Presidents Council, agreed.

"Bette Landman has done an outstanding job as the chair of the Presidents Council. She provided a significant voice for Division III as the NCAA was appointing a new president. Her leadership has been especially important as we focus on the issues related to the future of Division III."

'A pivotal moment for Division III'

Landman believes the future of Division III, whatever that may be, must include an active role for institutional presidents, both in the discussions of the future and in the implementation of all future initiatives. In her role as Presidents Council chair last year -- and now as a continuing member of the oversight committee of the Joint Subcommittee on the Future of Division III -- Landman is always looking for more ways to increase the number of Division III presidents who are actively involved in the discourse.

"I think this is a pivotal moment for Division III," Landman said, noting that the futures discussion has the potential to reshape the division and also directly affect expenditures and athletics emphasis on campus -- all issues that should garner presidential attention and interest.

"Presidents ought to be on top of this because we have to have sports teams that are consistent with our philosophy -- who we say we are," she said.

"It is the chance for us in Division III to say, given the way we have voted on issues and policies in the past piecemeal, 'Is the vision and the philosophy preserved?' I think it's a legitimate question and one that some of us would answer 'yes' and some of us would answer 'no,' " Landman said.

Landman also noted that presidential involvement in the NCAA governance structure must continue, even after the division decides its future course and sets about implementing it. Presidents who are unable to attend NCAA Conventions at least should meet with their athletics director to discuss votes on pending legislation, Landman says, and not just in 2004 but every year.

"I don't send my vice-president to ACE (American Council on Education) or NICU (the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities), so why would I send my athletics director, uninformed (about our institutional direction and my views on legislation), to the NCAA Convention to cast a vote?"

Ensuring balance

Landman's thoughts on presidential involvement are not restricted to involvement in NCAA matters. She believes, quite strongly, that presidents must take an active role in athletics on their campuses as well.

"I think it's critical," she said of presidential control. "If higher education can stand for anything, it should stand for a clear-cut mission and a commitment to academics, which means putting co-curriculars into perspective. Presidents are the only ones who have an overview of that kind," she said. "We are to be responsible not just for athletics but for the whole institution. It is the president's role to ensure a balance among all these different competing roles -- from the biology department to art to athletics -- and reconcile them with the student in mind. Presidents have to be involved in this."

Landman also said that Division III presidents have a special responsibility to take an active role in athletics because so many students on their campuses participate.

"Unlike Division I, there are a high percentage of our students playing the game at the varsity level," she said. "At Arcadia, we have 20 to 25 percent (participating in athletics), and I know other Division III institutions have an even higher percentage."

And because Division III institutions also tend to have smaller staffs, there is more student involvement in support positions as well, she said.

"Division III athletics is such a central and vital part of our campuses," she said. "Presidents must stay involved to ensure that involvement in that co-curricular activity doesn't preclude either academics or other co-curriculars."

She also said it is the president's role to ensure that student-athletes in Division III are not excluded from the broad liberal arts experience.

"We expect students to participate broadly in the many activities available on campus," she said. "It is the president's role to ensure that balance between student and athlete that we're so familiar with, but also to ensure the student has the opportunity to participate in other co-curricular activities. That's what we're all about. We want students to have a rich and varied and broad experience."

Landman sees the challenge as monitoring specialization and ensuring that student-athletes are treated like other students. She points out that liberal arts schools don't permit someone who wants to study business, for example, to bypass history, science or English in a single-minded quest to pursue only business.

"We don't allow it in the curriculum," she said. "Why should we allow that same specialization in athletics that we wouldn't allow in the curriculum?"

Landman has heard stories of coaches who will not permit Division III student-athletes to study abroad, have certain majors or participate in internships or clinical rotations. She thinks such restrictions are inappropriate.

"You can't demand that these people curtail all other activities besides athletics," she said. "That's like allowing the English chairman to have carté blanché with his curriculum, which we don't permit."

An advocate for athletics

Landman also is a proponent of athletics and sees the tremendous benefits of participation, both for the student-athlete and the campus.

"We have young people coming to us for whom this has been a central part of their lives," she said. "In one sense, we owe these students an opportunity to play and to have a good experience they can put in balance with the rest of their collegiate experience. We must provide for them a good, healthy place to continue that passion."

She said that compared to other co-curriculars, athletics is most in the public eye. For that reason, no other performance event has the opportunity to build community the way athletics does.

But athletics builds community best when it is put into perspective, she said.

"I do think athletics brings a number of benefits to the individual participants as well," Landman said. "I think it's a wonderful forum for students to bring out a number of life skills. First is leadership. Even if you're not a captain, you can be a leader in athletics in so many ways. Second is teamwork, and I think the learning of teamwork has a real application in the needs of business and industry today."

The importance of diversity is another value taught by athletics, Landman said.

"It may well be for many of our campuses that playing on an athletics team will be the most intense experience interacting with a diverse population for many of our students," she said. "My basketball teams, for example, are more integrated than my campus as a whole."

Landman notes that the interaction between individuals required of athletics participation also provides a different experience of diversity than just sitting in a classroom where the dialogue is mediated by an instructor.

"Every year when you play basketball or football on many of our campuses, you interact with people from different backgrounds, different races and different religions. You have to work together and trust each other. It's a wonderful gift that athletics brings to our students," she said.

Landman said that the interaction required of athletics participation also provides a different experience than just sitting in a classroom where the dialogue is mediated by an instructor.

"Every year when you play basketball or football on many of our campuses, you interact with people from different backgrounds," she said. "You have to work together and trust each other. It's a wonderful gift that athletics brings to our students."

Because Landman believes in the benefits of athletics, she has been a strong advocate at Arcadia as well.

From an athletics perspective, Landman guided Arcadia from the NAIA to membership in the NCAA, where the school joined the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference as a charter member. Her first campaign project was constructing the Kuch Athletic and Recreation Center, which houses athletics department offices, basketball courts, a swimming pool and workout facilities. Recently she also has overseen the construction of new tennis courts, a field hockey field and a softball field.

Recent successes have sent Arcadia teams to the NCAA tournament in men's and women's soccer, while lacrosse, softball, golf, and men's and women's tennis all have won conference championships. This fall, the men's soccer team won its second straight PAC championship, making it to the national quarterfinals and a No. 7 national ranking.

Landman also has enjoyed her NCAA service, which has reflected both her commitment to athletics and her commitment to its proper place in academe.

"I think the people I've interacted with over the years on the Division III Presidents Council and Management Council have been so dedicated, thoughtful and professional," she said of her service. "It's been a real pleasure.

Those are the groups charged with looking at the big picture, which is what Landman is all about.

"If the NCAA is to stand for anything as an organization, it must go beyond issuing rules of play and sanctions," she said. "Those issues are not worthy of presidential involvement. I really believe gender and diversity issues are the most cogent foci for the NCAA and the presidents of its member institutions.

"If we don't lead, who will?"