The Division III Presidents Council, noting a wealth of data that is being produced from a membership survey, used its October 28 meeting in Indianapolis to focus on ways to effectively share and discuss that information in the next few months.

The Council heard a brief summary of preliminary results of the survey -- which seeks guidance from the membership on how to manage Division III's growth and diversity, among other issues -- and also briefly reviewed the work of the Future of Division III--Phase II Oversight Group, a panel consisting of members of the Division III Presidents and Management Councils.

But the presidents, just like the Management Council earlier in October, made no effort to interpret results from the survey, which has been completed by 61 percent of member institutions and was expected to attract more responses as Management Council members made one last attempt to encourage participation before the end of October.

Instead, the Presidents Council -- realizing that the survey and related research efforts are producing a huge amount of information -- discussed how to present the data in a way that summarizes results without making judgments about what those results mean.

The survey seeks membership reactions to questions in seven subject areas: management of growth; access to championships and other postseason opportunities; sport and program equity; sports sponsorship and broad-based programs; conference affiliation; academic success of student-athletes; and cultural and campus integration.

Through October 27, 261 institutions -- including 236 institutions in 40 multisport conferences and 25 independent institutions -- had responded to the survey. About 79 percent of the respondents were private institutions and 21 percent were public institutions, very close to Division III's 80 percent/20 percent proportion of private/public schools.

The NCAA research staff collected institutions' responses to 29 questions in the seven subjects, as well as respondents' comments related to those topics. Eric M. Hartung, NCAA associate director of research, described the survey process to Council members, and also described ways in which the resulting data can be analyzed in the context of information available from other, existing research.

That information includes institutional demographics, such as graduation rates, enrollment and cost of attendance; academic selectivity, including percentages of applicants accepted and enrolled at institutions; and athletics program demographics, including total number of teams and student-athletes, number of male and female student-athletes, and proportion of student-athletes to the overall student body.

The resulting analysis will produce numerous ways of describing and interpreting the survey results, which prompted Presidents Council members to emphasize the importance of making sure the data are relatively easy to comprehend but also encourage substantial membership discussion.

For that reason, the Council approved a recommendation from the Management Council to ask Division III's recently formed "virtual focus groups" -- e-mail discussion groups that include chief executive officers, faculty athletics representatives, athletics administrators, student-athletes and coaches from each conference and independent institutions -- to review survey results, offer opinions about which issues seem most important and discuss which should receive highest priority.

The Future of Division III--Phase II Oversight Group suggested to the presidents that survey results be provided to the virtual focus groups for discussion during November, so that responses can by used by the oversight group to organize a broader membership discussion at the 2005 Convention.

The Presidents Council also reviewed and endorsed plans for that Convention discussion, which would occur during a January 9 forum in Dallas. Those plans include a roundtable-discussion format to permit delegates to discuss issues raised by survey data and to discuss next steps for the Phase II initiative.

Members of the Presidents Council, Management Council and Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will be seated at each of the tables to participate in discussion and collect feedback about issues raised by the survey.

The Presidents Council made no plans for the Phase II initiative beyond the 2005 Convention, other than acknowledging that 2004 Convention Proposal No. 66 -- the membership-adopted resolution that set the initiative in motion -- requires a final report to the membership at the 2006 Convention.

Proposed legislation

In its other main item of business during its Indianapolis meeting, the Council reviewed 12 legislative proposals that will be presented to the membership for consideration at the Dallas Convention, including nine proposals that originated in the Division III committee structure and three proposals from member conferences.

The Council revisited a proposal it is sponsoring that would require member institutions, as a condition and obligation of membership, to use mandatory binding arbitration to resolve certain legal disputes with the Association.

Council members learned that the proposal will not be considered by Division I during the 2004-05 legislative cycle. Because of the desire that the proposal be adopted by all three divisions, the Council is considering withdrawing the proposal and reintroducing it for the 2006 Convention.

The Council also reviewed recommendations from the Management Council about whether to support or oppose the three membership proposals.

The presidents voted to oppose a football-related proposal by the American Southwest and New Jersey Athletic Conferences and a gymnastics-related proposal by the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference.

The first proposal would permit limited skill instruction -- specifically, use of a football in passing-, catching- and kicking-related drills -- during the currently permitted five-week conditioning and strength-training period.

The other proposal seeks to reinstate the "out-of-season exception," or what previously was known as the "safety exception," to permit coaches to be present during a voluntary workout in gymnastics.

Council members oppose both proposals on grounds that they would reverse reforms previously advocated by the Council and adopted by the membership.

The presidents also reviewed a recommendation from the Management Council to support an Empire 8 proposal that would give institutions the option to exempt an alumni game from contest limitations during either the traditional or nontraditional season in six sports.

The Presidents Council voted to take no position, thus agreeing to leave it up to the membership to decide the merits of the proposal at the Convention.

The Council also reviewed and approved proposed groupings of proposals for voting purposes. It designated six proposals for inclusion in the Presidents Council Grouping, meaning those proposals will be decided by roll-call votes.

The three membership proposals are included in that grouping, along with the following proposals sponsored by the Council:

• To adopt (unless the proposal is withdrawn) mandatory binding arbitration related to certain legal disputes as a condition of membership.

• To exempt the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association national championship from playing-season limitations.

• To establish automatic qualification in the individual-team sports of golf and tennis.

The remaining six proposals would be decided by paddle votes.

Other highlights

Division III Presidents Council
October 28/Indianapolis

• Received a status report on the voluntary, division-wide financial aid reporting "pilot" program to test reporting systems before implementation of the mandatory process in 2005-06, noting that about 150 institutions had submitted data as of October 27.

• Approved budget adjustments for Division III initiative grant programs in 2005-06, resulting in reallocations of $127,000 in the areas of student-athlete welfare, membership education (including $25,000 for a new sportsmanship education initiative) and diversity.

• Reviewed a document describing the Presidents Council's policies and procedures, including a new policy stating that a member's unexcused absence from two consecutive Council meetings in a calendar year (regardless of the reason) shall constitute resignation from the Council. Members approved the document in concept, pending possible revisions and final approval at their April 2005 meeting.