Since the merger of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and the NCAA in 1981, many athletics departments have chosen to designate an experienced female administrator as the institution's "senior woman administrator."

What exactly that designation means is difficult to pinpoint, though, and its definition often depends on the size, membership division or philosophy of each athletics department.

The concept of the senior woman administator (SWA) has been evolving in fact almost since its creation.

In 1981, the Association needed a way to ensure that women were represented in the governance structure. The vast majority of administrators running women's athletics programs were women, while the majority of administrators in the NCAA were men.

Because the merger typically resulted in men being placed in charge of both men's and women's athletics at member schools, the membership created the "Primary Woman Administrator" (PWA), and positions were reserved on many NCAA committees for those designees.

Eventually, PWA became "senior woman administrator," which gave institutions guidance as to the level of responsibilities and input the SWA should have in directing the athletics department.

But the evolution of the name and its connotation has created a designation that is difficult to define in today's climate. Legal questions about the use of the term also have arisen in recent months, clouding the issue even further (see story on page A3).

Bonnie Tiell, a former SWA and current Tiffin University associate professor, conducted research in Divisions II and III as part of her doctoral dissertation. Tiell's results pointed to a distinct difference in the perceptions of athletics directors and senior woman administrators regarding principles of the SWA role as defined by the NCAA (see story on page A3). Tiell plans to conduct the research in Division I as well -- the Division I Management Council and the Committee on Women's Athletics have in fact endorsed the study.

As SWA at Tiffin, Tiell said she enjoyed a "wonderful relationship" with her athletics director, but she believed her experience wasn't necessarily widespread.

"I just had a concern about everything I've read and studied and lived," Tiell said. "What is the SWA's goal and what does the athletics director think? Are they on the same page about it?"

Tiell constructed a survey listing roles and responsibilities widely understood throughout the NCAA to be fulfilled by the SWA, and asked both SWAs and athletics directors to rate their agreement with each expected role and the actual way it is fulfilled on individual campuses.

Tiell received a relatively high return rate -- 62 percent of SWAs and 55 percent of ADs in Division II and 64 percent of SWAs and 68 percent of ADs in Division III responded to the Web-based survey.

Results showed that many SWAs in Divisions II and III are not holding administrative titles -- such as assistant, associate or senior associate AD -- and many are head coaches or professors in addition to holding the SWA designation. The majority of both ADs and SWAs in both divisions believed that the duties completed by the SWA were gender-neutral.

However, that shared perception of ADs and SWAs largely evaporated in other survey findings, most notably on decision-making and empowerment issues. ADs and SWAs in both divisions differed widely in their responses when asked whether they agreed with statements such as "the SWA is a decision-maker," "the SWA is a part of the senior management team" and "the SWA is involved in personnel hiring."

In all of those situations, the AD believed the SWA has more power than the SWA believed she has. In some cases, the gap in responses was as wide as 25 percent, and the gaps were consistent in both Divisions II and III.

Tiell said she wasn't surprised.

"There was an indication that there would be some perception differences when it came to the decision-making topics because that's a big point of contention when it came to our definitions, the wording of our bylaws, and just what I've heard from both sides," she said.

In an important finding, Tiell said the different perceptions are related to administrative position rather than gender -- the perception gap exists regardless of whether the AD is male or female.

"Their remarks about the SWA position were by virtue of being an athletics director, not by virtue of being a male or female," she said.

A title that carries clout?

Tiell has presented her research to several audiences, including the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators, the Committee on Women's Athletics and the Women in Sport Symposium at Bowling Green State University. She said that because those audiences have been women's interest groups, the results haven't generated much controversy.

"It seems to be more ammunition for what they perceive as a societal problem, what they perceive the roles of the female in the athletics department are," Tiell said.

She receives periodic e-mail responses to the research, which is available online at bruno.tiffin.edu/btiell/WLS/NCAA%20Research/SWA%20Divisional%Comparison.htm. Many people write Tiell about their personal stories or to ask for more information or more data.

"It continues. There is interest. It's amazing," she said. "It comes from people who are out of the business, and from people who still are in the business."

Val Cushman, athletics director at Randolph-Macon Woman's College, said the research was the first of its kind to really evaluate the effectiveness of the NCAA's SWA policies. The results, she said, were surprising to her as an athletics director who believed her SWA was an important part of the decision-making process on her campus. She said athletics directors in Division III are talking about their results, and that discussion itself is possibly the best outcome of the research.

Cushman said she wasn't surprised by results that showed SWAs in Divisions II and III often serve as coaches or teachers, in addition to fulfilling the responsibilities associated with the SWA designation. But she was surprised by SWAs' perception of their role.

"I think it's obvious that many people at the Division III level, not just SWAs, wear multiple hats. The fact that the people in that position don't feel the title of SWA is a title that carries clout was surprising to me," she said.

Often in Division III, and sometimes in Division II, SWAs have only half-time administrative duties or less. Some question the viability of the position if women who are supposed to be helping run the athletics department also are teaching classes or coaching teams. But others believe the balance of duties helps an SWA gain experience and grow into a role as an administrator.

Rosalie Resch, associate athletics director for business and finance and SWA at the University of Chicago, said the balancing act can sometimes help a woman get a foot in the door.

"We still don't have enough women in athletics administration at the senior level," she said. "The only way to get to the senior level is through administrative experience."

She pointed to a section of Tiell's research that indicated women are more involved in the "touchy-feely" side of athletics administration, such as compliance or student-athlete development, rather than areas like finance or facilities development. Resch said such a compartmentalization of administrative responsibilities doesn't help a woman develop leadership skills.

Resch pointed out that even some athletics directors coach in Division III, though those numbers are declining.

"If those people can do it at the top level, then at the second level, women should be able to do that, too," Resch said. "It's what they do with their assignment and what their responsibility is -- that's what will make the big difference. If the women are only there in a non-decision-making role, or a role that doesn't put any credibility with their input, then it isn't a very effective role for women to be in."

When Cushman began her career in intercollegiate athletics, she viewed the SWA designation as a significant advancement, bringing with it meaningful responsibility.

"When I came into the business, gaining that title at the time was an important step in my own professional development," she said. "But the fact that it's not being perceived that way by current SWAs, as an entitlement, was surprising to me. But it makes sense when you read the empowerment piece. They don't feel it's an important role where the power is being allocated.

"If somebody just gave someone the title or the role SWA because they needed to fill that position -- and didn't give any authority with it -- of course you're not feeling empowered."

That feeling may be exacerbated by limited opportunities to compare notes with SWAs at other institutions.

Resch said there is little opportunity for women who serve as SWAs to network, and even when they do attend the same meetings, such as the NCAA Convention, they often are not easily identifiable as SWAs.

"It's hard to know whether someone is an SWA because it's not what I put on my nametag, and it's not an official university title. It's not on my business card. In some ways, we're a little in the closet," she said.

"It's hard to know what's happening outside (our conference or institution) because SWAs are a little bit anonymous on the NCAA floor."

While the research has been completed in Divisions II and III, Division I SWAs eagerly are awaiting the findings from their colleagues. Darlene Bailey, chair of the Committee on Women's Athletics (CWA) and associate athletics director and SWA at Southwest Missouri State University (to become Missouri State University on August 28), said she's eager to compare results for all three divisions.

"It is likely to show some very different things," she said. "Division I will have some differences (from the other divisions), and there are a lot of differences even within Division I depending on the institution and size of the program."

Empowering women in governance

Janet Kittell, associate director of athletics at Syracuse University and CWA vice-chair, said she believes each program has unique differences, though she also suspects some of the same themes from Divisions II and III may repeat themselves in Division I.

"I suspect that we'll find similar threads, but with different details," she said.

Tiell also suspects that differences are possible.

"In Division I, you're going to find more SWAs who already have that title of associate or assistant or senior associate athletics director. And that title is where decision-making in the authority structure is built in," she said.

Once the results are in hand, the next question is what should be done about them. For some, educating leadership is the answer, while others believe the research demands more study of the SWA designation overall. For many, the ultimate goal is to make that designation unnecessary by achieving full representation of women in athletics administration.

"But in the short term, (we need) models of success that we can aspire to, a commitment to get past the legal issues and move toward the root issues of women's involvement in the leadership of collegiate sport," Cushman said. "And (we need) for every institution, whether that be the CEO or the athletics director, to ask if they are creating opportunities for women leaders in sports."

Tiell believes that the NCAA needs to make a stronger commitment to empowering women in governance, and member institutions need to do the same on their campuses. The problem is not with the SWA designation, she said, but with getting women involved in athletics administration at the senior level.

"If the NCAA was committed to making women part of decision-making and the authority structure of athletics departments, there would be the effort to call together a diverse group -- by virtue of divisions, gender and ethnicity -- to study the SWA title/position," Tiell said. "This group could have an effect on changing the culture of intercollegiate athletics. The real problem is advancing more women in the positions of assistant and associate ADs to ADs.

"It is not about the SWA....we have plenty of those in the industry."

Rosie Stallman, NCAA director of education services, said both ADs and SWAs would benefit from additional education. ADs need to ask for advice from SWAs, and SWAs need to learn their role in department leadership.

"They need to sit down and talk about it. ADs need to ask for advice from SWAs on potential policies and programs they could implement," she said. "SWAs need to be educated about the AD's vision and how they fit into that. It should be a team approach."

She, too, hopes one day the designation will disappear from NCAA terminology.

"The goal is that the designation will not be needed," she said. "You will have enough women and men as administrators on your team that you have a variety of ideas represented."

For Tiell, the goal she would like to achieve with her research has very little to do with the SWA designation itself.

"I would like to see an awakening across the board," she said. "I would like for more women to be in the positions of assistant athletics directors, athletics directors, associate athletics directors, regardless of whether they have the SWA title. If they are in a position with decision-making authority, then they should have the title to go along with it."