The NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee endorsed the expansion of the Black Coaches Association’s hiring report card and discussed the representation of minorities within the NCAA governance structure during its June 12-13 meeting in Indianapolis.

The group also voted to accept a proposal to streamline the data-collection process for a key membership demographics report.

During an in-person presentation to the committee, BCA Executive Director Floyd Keith said the organization will expand its hiring report card this year to include Division I women’s basketball coaches and athletics administrators. Compilation of the newest report cards will be handled through the DeVos Sport Business Management program at the University of Central Florida, which is directed by Richard Lapchick, first vice president of the BCA and founder of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. The MOIC affirmed its support and noted the BCA’s plans to release the third edition of the hiring report card monitoring Division I football coaches in the fall.

Keith also requested a clarification on the NCAA’s Confederate flag policy. He said the concern initially surfaced during last month’s BCA convention and specifically questioned why schools in South Carolina were being allowed to host NCAA postseason baseball competition in light of a 2002 NCAA Executive Committee resolution prohibiting member institutions in the state from hosting postseason events until the Confederate flag is removed from statehouse grounds.

The policy refers only to predetermined sites. In baseball and other sports such as tennis, the highest-seeded team is offered the opportunity to host a round of championships play.

The MOIC agreed to review the issue at its next meeting in January and asked staff to provide committee members with the Executive Committee’s resolution as well as the championships policy that applies to baseball and other sports with similar tournament advancement structures.

The MOIC also discussed the lack of minority representation in the NCAA governance structure. Committee members noted that concern over the issue has been expressed by a number of groups throughout the membership. NCAA Committee Coordinator Sharon Tufano, who was present for the discussion, said that ethnic and gender diversity is taken seriously when committee appointments are made, and that part of the frustration is that the pool of eligible candidates is limited. Currently, racial and ethnic minorities compose about 10 to 12 percent of those serving on committees.

In Division I, individuals are nominated by their conferences, while Divisions II and III accept self-nominations. Governing bodies such as the Management Councils and Division I cabinets are required by legislation to maintain at least a 20 percent level of diversity. Division III also has legislated specific diversity requirements for most of its general committees.

The MOIC noted that the low numbers of racial and ethnic minorities participating in the committee structure may be a result of the lack of diversity in senior management positions such as athletics director, associate athletics director or conference commissioner, from which committee members are typically chosen. To identify the scope of the issue, committee members requested data reflecting the number of racial and ethnic minorities currently serving on committees, the number eligible to serve and each division’s criteria for committee service. The group plans to discuss the issue further at its next meeting.

Diversity reports

In other actions, the MOIC accepted a proposal to streamline data collection for the voluntary Ethnicity and Gender Demographics Report compiled by the NCAA research staff and the required Membership Sport Sponsorship/Demographic Report compiled by the membership services staff. Information for the reports has most recently been collected online, and both ask for some overlapping data. The proposal calls for modifications to be made to the administrators and sports teams sections of the sport sponsorship form, which is already under revision, to capture data previously cataloged by the research staff for the gender and ethnicity report. The new form also will provide space for individuals’ names and contact information to be linked to specific positions, a feature that will allow the staff track career progression and retention trends.

Proponents of the joint effort think it will decrease the number of data requests fielded by the membership and boost the number of responses to the Ethnicity and Gender Demographics Report. The response rate for the 2005-06 version of the demographics report was 75 percent, down significantly from the first-year response of 97 percent in 1995-96. The availability of real-time data and faster report production are other benefits of the proposal. While research will have access to the data, membership services will maintain the information.

Pending approval from the Executive Committee Subcommittee on Gender and Diversity, the new demographics report will be tested in 2006-07 and the research staff will launch the revamped report in 2007-08.

As part of a review and discussion of Academic Progress Rate data, the MOIC encouraged the national office staff to consider the differences in access among institutions in terms of their missions and the types of students they serve. The committee’s request was, in part, a response to concerns about the number of Historically Black Colleges and Universities included on the list of schools that could be subject to contemporaneous and historically based penalties for poor academic performance.

In a report highlighting current and future NCAA diversity and inclusion initiatives, the committee noted plans to relaunch the diversity education program in the fall through the NCAA office for diversity and inclusion. The new program will be expanded to include culture in addition to race, gender and sexual orientation. The group also supported adding a new component to the Ethnic Minority and Women’s Enhancement Scholarship that will bring recipients of the award to the national office to meet staff members and help prepare them for the graduate school experience.

In other actions, the MOIC formed a subcommittee to review the Divisions I, II and III certification and self-study instruments. Membership services staff members asked the subcommittee to examine the documents and develop recommendations and accountability measures that will strengthen diversity-related portions of the certification processes.