Recent research offering a new picture of how senior woman administrators perceive themselves -- and how they are perceived by directors of athletics -- has proven to be a catalyst for actions in Division III to further enhance the SWA role at institutions and in conferences.

However, significant steps already had been taken to address a long-standing desire to pull more women into senior management of Division III athletics programs, and more recently to encourage communication among SWAs at the conference level.

"In terms of history, as part of our strategic plan, one of our primary goals is advancement of gender and ethnic diversity," said Bridget Belgiovine, NCAA director of Division III, noting the basis for various initiatives funded by the division -- including SWA enhancement.

"We've allocated, on an annual basis, $112,000 for SWA enhancement. We're now in year five of supporting programs for senior woman administrators."

Those funds support two initiatives: grants for SWAs from Division III members to attend the NACWAA/
HERS Institute -- an 11-year-old program promoting administrative advancement and sponsored by the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators and the Higher Education Resource Services program --and an annual topical workshop presented in conjunction with the NACWAA Fall Forum, for which conferences receive grants to send participants.

The weeklong NACWAA/HERS institute is open to women from all levels of intercollegiate athletics, and Division III has been well-represented in each year's two institute classes. Belgiovine said an average of 24 women from Division III schools attend the sessions annually.

Rosalie Resch, who as associate director of athletics at the University of Chicago is that institution's senior woman administrator, said young women aspiring to athletics careers on her campus have participated in the institutes and subsequently advanced to administrative positions.

"Any initiative that gets people off campuses frankly is a good initiative," said Resch, a member of the Division III Management Council. "It empowers people to come back and have conversations. A lot of SWAs out there are first-time administrators and don't necessarily know what that means."

Belgiovine said the investment is worthwhile for Division III.

"You see the fruits of the labor when you return from the events and institutes and receive handwritten notes and cards from the participants, thanking the NCAA and Division III for providing them the resources to have this life- and profession-altering experience," Belgiovine said. "You go, 'Yep, it's working' -- the monies are well spent, because we're affecting women professionals, who in turn ultimately will affect student-athletes."

The effort to link SWAs within conferences is a more recent initiative, just entering its second year at this October's NACWAA Fall Forum in Kansas City, Missouri. There, Division III will sponsor a three-hour workshop -- titled "Facilitating Phenomenal Facilities" -- to explore aspects of planning and building athletics facilities on campuses, including fund-raising.

"Some of the areas in which SWAs said they needed knowledge and to be involved surrounded budgets, fund-raising and personnel management," said Val Cushman, director of athletics at Randolph-Macon Woman's College and one of this year's workshop planners, referring to findings from research conducted by Tiffin University's Bonnie Tiell. "So when we were thinking about a topic, we tried to find something that wouldn't just talk in a vacuum about budgeting or about fund-raising, but apply it to a given area."

Cushman said the workshop seeks to give women the information they need to participate in an important area of decision-making on campus.

"We're hoping to empower them through the programming to then take the information back and share it with their SWA colleagues," Belgiovine said, noting that each Division III conference receives $1,500 annually to fund one or more administrator's attendance.

Opportunities to share both knowledge and experiences is a key to helping more women prepare to participate significantly in administration of athletics programs, Resch suggested. She added that Division III provides funding for other initiatives -- for example, to support attendance at regional rules seminars -- that indirectly contributes to that preparation.

"A lot of that funding went to women in SWA roles with compliance duties," she said. "It wasn't technically an SWA program, but I think it accidentally worked out that way, in a positive way. Anytime people can interact with colleagues from other campuses, that's going to be a positive thing."

While Division III already was committed to developing and supporting advancement of women into senior administrative roles, it appears Tiell's research -- which actually was commissioned to provide a subject for discussion at the inaugural NACWAA Fall Forum workshop in 2004 -- may have shifted those efforts into a higher gear.

"We have learned a lot from the survey," Belgiovine said. "Its results are helping us frame how to approach the goal of enhancing the role."

The first result came last January, when the Division III Management and Presidents Councils authorized formation of an ad hoc group involving Management Council members to recommend possible actions.

"It reviewed the data, recommended a mailing to the membership and increased education, did much to trigger an Association-wide look at the issue, and now is moving into looking at the SWA in the conference structure," Belgiovine said about the ad hoc group's accomplishments during the past eight months.

The April mailing to chief executive officers, athletics directors, conference commissioners, faculty athletics representatives and SWAs at every Division III institution featured results from Tiell's survey and a document promoting "empowerment" of SWAs.

-- Jack Copeland