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NCAA News Archive - 2007
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Committee considers legislative approaches to diversity
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By Leilana McKindra
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
SAN DIEGO — The NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee reviewed several diversity-related legislative recommendations and began addressing the lack of diversity in college baseball during its June 12 meeting.
The MOIC considered concepts submitted in January from the NCAA Diversity Leadership Strategic Planning Committee, a group NCAA President Myles Brand appointed in 2006 to examine diversity issues in the NCAA membership.
One of the proposals would require athletics departments to demonstrate that they follow institutional hiring and employment practices. Anecdotal evidence suggests that athletics departments sometimes follow their own procedures to expedite filling high-profile coaching and administrative vacancies rather than adhere to campus hiring policies. To that end, the MOIC agreed to ask the Division I Committee on Athletics Certification and the Divisions II and III Membership Committees to track whether that practice is common.
The committee also considered a proposal to establish an annual diversity and inclusion report for member institutions and conferences. The MOIC suggested enhancing the current race and gender demographics report by documenting ways member institutions and conferences are promoting diversity.
A third proposal would designate one person at each institution as responsible for managing institutional plans for improvement in gender equity and minority and diversity issues. MOIC members noted most Division I schools currently designate individuals to oversee institutional gender equity, minority and diversity plans, but they will ask the Divisions II and III Membership Committees to encourage schools in those divisions to do the same.
The MOIC decided to delay until its January meeting action on a fourth recommendation to increase the number of racial or ethnic minorities and women who serve in the NCAA governance structure. That discussion, though, led to a more immediate concern about a Division I Management Council Governance Subcommittee proposal to replace the Management Council and two cabinets with two 31-member Leadership and Legislative Councils and six topical cabinets, one of which is a 31-member championships body and the other five of which are 20-member groups.
The proposal calls for the current ethnic minority and gender minimums of 20 percent and 35 percent, respectively, to apply in aggregate to all of the 31-member bodies and all of the 20-member groups. Those minimums are policy-driven and not legislatively mandated.
The MOIC will ask the governance subcommittee to consider making the minimums for both ethnic minorities and women 35 percent, or keeping them at the current levels but prohibiting individuals from counting in more than one category.
MOIC members also are troubled by the fact that the minimums don’t apply to the Board of Directors, the group charged with oversight of the new bodies and, by extension, their diversity.
The restructuring package is expected to be finalized for Management Council review in October and submitted into the legislative cycle at that time, where it would be on track for a January-February comment period and a final vote in April. If the measure passes, the change could be effective by August 2008.
Robert Vowels, chair of the MOIC and incoming vice president for education services at the NCAA national office, said that regardless of how the governance structure changes, maintaining the current level of diverse representation is vital.
“It’s critical for us to not lose our seat at the table. We’ve worked so hard over the years to get the correct representation and make it a diverse pool,” he said. “It’s important for people to understand that at Division II and Division III, a lot of times you can self-nominate. At Division I, though, it’s a conference-focused nomination process. Understanding those procedures is so important.”
Eye on baseball
After reviewing key findings and recommendations from a report issued by the Baseball Academic Enhancement Working Group, the MOIC noted the low numbers of African-Americans competing on this year’s College World Series teams and questioned whether the lack of diversity in baseball is a trend that will continue. The group recommended partnering with Major League Baseball and other related groups to commission a study to determine reasons for the drop in the participation rates of African-Americans in baseball across all three divisions.
“Over the years, minority representation in baseball, one of America’s true sports, has been declining and we are trying to figure out why,” said Vowels. He noted a lack of baseball sponsorship in public schools, insufficient resources and few fields in inner cities as contributing to the downward slide. “We’re trying to find ways to work with Major League Baseball, college and high school coaches, athletics directors and other administrators to start breaking down some of these challenges to get more young players playing baseball within our communities.”
Vowels said the committee’s focus will remain on baseball for now but did not rule out expanding the group’s scope to other sports in the future.
In other action, the MOIC reviewed ongoing discussions in the governance structure about supporting lower-resource institutions as they try to meet academic-reform standards. Vowels said many historically black colleges and universities have academic-improvement plans in place and are awaiting notice of whether grants may be available to further boost athletics academic support systems at the schools. In addition, Vowels said, schools are developing best practices to further enhance the academic achievement of student-athletes at those institutions.
The MOIC also heard from its athletics certification subcommittee, which worked with the Division I Committee on Athletics Certification to strengthen diversity-related elements of the Division I self-study instrument.
On the basis of input from the MOIC subcommittee, proposed enhancements to the certification program include a definition of diversity and a new program area related to retention. Program area nine also could be modified to add athletics department staff and coaches from under-represented groups or diverse backgrounds to those who should participate in governance issues and decision-making processes within the athletics department. Previously, that area extended only to student-athletes.
The MOIC considered concepts submitted in January from the NCAA Diversity Leadership Strategic Planning Committee, a group NCAA President Myles Brand appointed in 2006 to examine diversity issues in the NCAA membership.
One of the proposals would require athletics departments to demonstrate that they follow institutional hiring and employment practices. Anecdotal evidence suggests that athletics departments sometimes follow their own procedures to expedite filling high-profile coaching and administrative vacancies rather than adhere to campus hiring policies. To that end, the MOIC agreed to ask the Division I Committee on Athletics Certification and the Divisions II and III Membership Committees to track whether that practice is common.
The committee also considered a proposal to establish an annual diversity and inclusion report for member institutions and conferences. The MOIC suggested enhancing the current race and gender demographics report by documenting ways member institutions and conferences are promoting diversity.
A third proposal would designate one person at each institution as responsible for managing institutional plans for improvement in gender equity and minority and diversity issues. MOIC members noted most Division I schools currently designate individuals to oversee institutional gender equity, minority and diversity plans, but they will ask the Divisions II and III Membership Committees to encourage schools in those divisions to do the same.
The MOIC decided to delay until its January meeting action on a fourth recommendation to increase the number of racial or ethnic minorities and women who serve in the NCAA governance structure. That discussion, though, led to a more immediate concern about a Division I Management Council Governance Subcommittee proposal to replace the Management Council and two cabinets with two 31-member Leadership and Legislative Councils and six topical cabinets, one of which is a 31-member championships body and the other five of which are 20-member groups.
The proposal calls for the current ethnic minority and gender minimums of 20 percent and 35 percent, respectively, to apply in aggregate to all of the 31-member bodies and all of the 20-member groups. Those minimums are policy-driven and not legislatively mandated.
The MOIC will ask the governance subcommittee to consider making the minimums for both ethnic minorities and women 35 percent, or keeping them at the current levels but prohibiting individuals from counting in more than one category.
MOIC members also are troubled by the fact that the minimums don’t apply to the Board of Directors, the group charged with oversight of the new bodies and, by extension, their diversity.
The restructuring package is expected to be finalized for Management Council review in October and submitted into the legislative cycle at that time, where it would be on track for a January-February comment period and a final vote in April. If the measure passes, the change could be effective by August 2008.
Robert Vowels, chair of the MOIC and incoming vice president for education services at the NCAA national office, said that regardless of how the governance structure changes, maintaining the current level of diverse representation is vital.“It’s critical for us to not lose our seat at the table. We’ve worked so hard over the years to get the correct representation and make it a diverse pool,” he said. “It’s important for people to understand that at Division II and Division III, a lot of times you can self-nominate. At Division I, though, it’s a conference-focused nomination process. Understanding those procedures is so important.”
Eye on baseball
After reviewing key findings and recommendations from a report issued by the Baseball Academic Enhancement Working Group, the MOIC noted the low numbers of African-Americans competing on this year’s College World Series teams and questioned whether the lack of diversity in baseball is a trend that will continue. The group recommended partnering with Major League Baseball and other related groups to commission a study to determine reasons for the drop in the participation rates of African-Americans in baseball across all three divisions.
“Over the years, minority representation in baseball, one of America’s true sports, has been declining and we are trying to figure out why,” said Vowels. He noted a lack of baseball sponsorship in public schools, insufficient resources and few fields in inner cities as contributing to the downward slide. “We’re trying to find ways to work with Major League Baseball, college and high school coaches, athletics directors and other administrators to start breaking down some of these challenges to get more young players playing baseball within our communities.”
Vowels said the committee’s focus will remain on baseball for now but did not rule out expanding the group’s scope to other sports in the future.
In other action, the MOIC reviewed ongoing discussions in the governance structure about supporting lower-resource institutions as they try to meet academic-reform standards. Vowels said many historically black colleges and universities have academic-improvement plans in place and are awaiting notice of whether grants may be available to further boost athletics academic support systems at the schools. In addition, Vowels said, schools are developing best practices to further enhance the academic achievement of student-athletes at those institutions.
The MOIC also heard from its athletics certification subcommittee, which worked with the Division I Committee on Athletics Certification to strengthen diversity-related elements of the Division I self-study instrument.
On the basis of input from the MOIC subcommittee, proposed enhancements to the certification program include a definition of diversity and a new program area related to retention. Program area nine also could be modified to add athletics department staff and coaches from under-represented groups or diverse backgrounds to those who should participate in governance issues and decision-making processes within the athletics department. Previously, that area extended only to student-athletes.
Other highlights
Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee
June 12/San Diego
- Recommended a change in the eligibility criteria for the Fellows Leadership Development Program. Currently, to be considered for the 18-month program, an administrator must be an associate director of athletics with at least seven years of experience. The committee believes potential candidates may be excluded because titles and responsibilities are not applied uniformly among institutions. Consequently, the MOIC suggested that the selection committee be allowed more flexibility in the process.
- Appointed a subcommittee to further develop a new diversity initiative that would provide participants in various NCAA professional-development programs such as the Fellows Program and the Leadership Institute for Ethnic Minority Males and Females to serve as nonvoting members of NCAA governance committees. Reviewed graduation rates for men’s and women’s basketball and indoor and outdoor track and requested additional context related to the statistics provided and explaining why some sports were performing better than others.
- Selected Gwendolyn Reeves of Fort Valley State University as committee chair to replace Robert Vowels, who will join the NCAA national office in August as vice president of education services. Reeves is the first of the committee’s four chairs to be female.
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