Division III school shares roles to align educational mission

Utica College has taken strides to more closely align intercollegiate athletics with the institutional mission through two programs -- the faculty mentoring/friend program and the cultural event initiative.

Now in its third year, the faculty mentoring/friend program pairs one faculty member with each of the school's 19 athletics teams. The goal is to allow student-athletes, coaches and faculty to better understand each other's roles within the college and to learn from the different perspectives.

Arlene Lundquist, an associate professor of psychology who operates the program, noted that each of the groups has a distinctly different role but shares a common mission.

"We meet different needs, but crossover can exist, and I think we're proving that," said Lundquist, the school's faculty athletics representative.

Utica also debuted its cultural event initiative in 2002. That program requires all student-athletes to participate in a minimum of two cultural or leadership activities each academic year. The activities may take place in the community or on campus. As part of the cultural events program, student-athletes have attended readings, musical performances and art exhibits on campus, and they also have volunteered at local rescue missions, youth centers and nursing homes.

Both efforts are the brainchild of Jim Spartano, longtime director of athletics at Utica.

"These programs provide terrific opportunities for our students to prosper personally, as well as academically," Spartano said.

NCAA rewards excellence in student journalism

The Freedom Forum, in conjunction with the NCAA, has awarded eight $3,000 scholarships to undergraduate students studying sports journalism at NCAA member schools.

Designed to foster freedoms of speech and press and promote quality sports journalism education at NCAA colleges and universities, the one-year scholarships are awarded to students (entering their senior year of study during the 2005-06 academic year) who are majoring in journalism or sports journalism, or who have campus sports journalism experience.

The 2005-06 Freedom Forum/NCAA Sports Journalism Scholarship recipients are Erin E. Bolen, Southern Methodist University; Michael D. Becker, Syracuse University; Sean W. Kelly, Wheaton College (Massachusetts); Stephen K. King, Ohio State University; Brian R. MacPherson, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Wade R. Malcolm, Pennsylvania State University; P. Colby Sledge, Middle Tennessee State University; and Emily S. Werchadlo, Northeastern University.

The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan, nonprofit foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people.

Since 1992, the Freedom Forum has awarded more than 100 scholarships through the program totaling more than $300,000.

Rider goalkeeper puts gender stereotype on ice

Angela Treannie's boredom with rollerblading around the neighborhood led her father to put a stick in her hand and introduce her to ice hockey. Years later, it was pure love of the sport that drove Treannie, who now serves as the backup goalie for the Rider University men's ice hockey club team, back to the ice.

After earning an associate's degree from a community college and transferring to Rider, Treannie used her junior year to adjust to the academic demand before deciding to try out for Rider's club team.

Being the only female on an all-male team wasn't new to Treannie. The senior played on an all-boys' ice hockey squad in high school. Although, initially, the netminder was nervous about being able to keep up with college-aged men, her skill and passion between the pipes earned her one of the 28 slots on the 2004-05 Broncs team.

Treannie -- who uses a boiler room to change during home games, which are played at a local high school -- has appeared in five games, made numerous saves and turned in one scoreless period.

Treannie said the experience has taught her how to manage her time better, and also how to interact with people in a unique situation and to demand more out of herself as a competitor. The biology major and chemistry minor plans to graduate in May and, ultimately, pursue a career in cancer research.

-- Compiled by Leilana McKindra

Number crunching

Looking back

5 years ago

Here's what was making NCAA news in February 2000:

• The Division II Membership Committee recommends a two-year moratorium on new membership in Division II after governance groups note the potential for an overwhelming increase of new members, primarily from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.

• In a guest editorial published in the February 28, 2000, NCAA News, Big Ten Conference Commissioner Jim Delany advocates for major changes in the culture of men's basketball. Delany urges the Division I Working Group to Study Basketball Issues to recommend significant modifications to reconnect "certain elements of the youth and college basketball environments and reasonable educational outcomes." "It is time for the NCAA membership to learn from the private sector. We must analyze the situation, implement change and continue to modify and re-evaluate the state of Division I basketball," Delany writes. "Failure to act will be seen for what it is -- lack of vision, courage and responsibility. Support initial grant-in-aid limits, eliminate summer evaluation, provide summer-school opportunities for entering freshmen basketball student-athletes, reward retention and graduation, and adopt zero tolerance for gambling incidents. It is time for the presidents to lead and for the rest of us to support change."

• The Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet supports changes in a legislative package of amateurism rules for pre-enrolled prospective student-athletes in response to feedback from various constituencies and from the Division I forum at the annual Convention in January. Chief among the changes is one that will eliminate a controversial "year of grace" between high-school graduation and initial enrollment in college. In the new legislative package, prospective student-athletes would lose a year of collegiate eligibility for every year of participation in organized competition immediately following the summer after high-school graduation.