NEW ORLEANS — Participants at the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association Fall Forum spent much of their time developing future empowerment strategies for individual FARs and for the organization itself.

The Forum came on the heels of an NCAA Presidential Task Force report that encourages faculty to be more involved in decisions that help integrate athletics within institutions’ educational mission. FARA used its annual forum to amplify on that charge.

Most of the programming at the November 16-18 meeting stressed the role faculty representatives within a diverse membership play in achieving such a collective goal.

Part of the solution, according to forum attendees, is to publicize the FAR presence more.

"We haven’t had an opportunity for the general public to really know who we are," said FARA President Lorrie Clemo, the FAR at the State University of New York at Oswego. "We want to get beyond the campus so that the public and the people who are critical of intercollegiate athletics know we are here to support the student-athlete and ensure academic integrity."

Clemo said the groundwork for being more active in the future was set last spring when she and FARA president-elect Dennis Leighton met with NCAA President Myles Brand. Brand’s advice to FARA? Be nimble, he said.

"What he meant was that we need to be able to respond to issues quickly and get our word out," said Leighton, who teaches at the University of New England. "If you have 15 faculty members on the FARA executive committee, you can’t be nimble."

Thus, FARA members have given the organization’s president the authority to be a spokesperson in such matters.

An example is FARA issuing a joint statement with FARs from Division I Football Bowl Subdivision institutions after the Presidential Task Force released its report calling for athletics integration and institutional accountability.

"The FARA president will try to get as much input as he or she can, but not at the expense of waiting," Leighton said. "The benefit of being nimble is that when people think about getting a faculty viewpoint on something, they think, ‘Let’s go to FARA.’ "

In remarks during a November 17 session, NCAA President Brand told FARA members that they can play significant roles in setting and maintaining academic standards for student-athletes, governance oversight and direct assistance of institutional chancellors and presidents.

He also said FARs must ensure that student-athletes receive the same treatment from faculty as other students. Brand said a frequent concern he hears from student-athletes is with faculty members who threaten the student-athlete with a failed test score should they miss an exam due to excused travel to compete. He said in such instances the FAR might help orchestrate a compromise.

"Student-athletes must be treated the same as other students on campus," Brand said. "That is the fundamental principle. It means they get no special favors, and it also means they are not treated worse than other students."

Brand also stressed two paths by which FARs can influence intercollegiate athletics. First is to conduct informed and constructive dialogue about intercollegiate athletics on their respective campuses.

Second is building mutual trust between the faculty and the athletics department. To the latter, Brand suggested that FARs do simple things, such as take a coach to lunch, which can help build relationships.

He also encouraged meetings with the athletics director and faculty governance and senate.

"Once both sides engage and build some mutual trust, we will move forward faster," Brand said.