National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA News Archive - 2007
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FARs ready to play integration role
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By Lorrie Clemo
Faculty Athletics Representatives Association
Faculty Athletics Representatives Association
The following is the second of three articles planned during the coming weeks addressing portions of the recent report of the Presidential Task Force on the Future of Division I Intercollegiate Athletics from a faculty athletics representative’s perspective, resulting from a discussion by the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association’s executive committee. This second installment focuses on Chapter 2 of the report, titled “The Value of Integration,” which deals with integration of athletics within the campus environment.
The full integration of athletics into the mission of higher education is a laudable goal. It is a goal that faculty athletics representatives support and commit to in their daily work. As a group, faculty athletics representatives need no convincing — we firmly believe that athletics has an important and integral role to play in the personal and educational development of student-athletes.
Most FARs will readily admit, however, that work must be done before the goal of integration can be widely achieved.
The challenge facing many colleges and universities today is that athletics looks like an entity separate from the university. While few athletics programs can boast financial self-sufficiency, most are perceived as independent enclaves falsely evidenced by the way they are managed and operate within the university.
Adoption of the self-sufficiency model of athletics over the last two decades has greatly diminished the regular and direct communication between the athletics department and the campus. These deteriorating relationships have resulted in a great divide that we are now being challenged to bridge.
To fully align athletics into the mission of higher education, there must be a collective will to act by all constituency groups involved in higher education. The will to act gained some traction with the release of the report of the Presidential Task Force on the Future of Division I Intercollegiate Athletics, and the momentum appears to be growing as a result of the work of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association and other faculty and athletics groups committed to the integration principle.
The Task Force report recommends specific structural and organizational changes to help move us toward complete integration of athletics on college campuses. Additionally, the report recommends greater faculty awareness and involvement in athletics policy issues. FARA executive committee members offer the following best practices for educating and involving the general faculty in issues of athletics and to help athletics become further integrated:
One of the most widely recognized and effective means of involving the general faculty in athletics is through a faculty-team mentoring program. Many colleges and universities have adopted programs like these to bring faculty into the athletics arena as active participants in the student development process. By providing opportunities for observation and face-to-face interaction with student-athletes, coaches, academic support staff, athletics directors and others, faculty gain a better understanding of the role athletics plays in the personal development of student-athletes and are more prepared to discuss policy issues in a constructive manner.
FARs use new-faculty orientation programs or opening convocation programs to discuss the role of the FAR and to describe the responsibilities we have as critical liaisons between the general faculty, university administration and the athletics administration on athletics/academic issues.
On some campuses, FARs have established an extended network of faculty from each department or academic program that serves as academic advisors to student-athletes. Similar to the team-mentoring program, the faculty advisor is given an opportunity to have face-to-face interaction with student-athletes and is also provided the tools and information they need to advise student-athletes for academic success.
Involving faculty governance in athletics can be supported by the FAR in several ways, including regular reports to the faculty senate on a monthly or semester basis; having representation from the faculty senate on the campus athletics committee; and seeking input from faculty governance on the selection and review of the campus faculty athletics representative.
Strongly supported by the executive committee was the recommendation detailed in the Task Force report that athletics academic advising as a support service to student-athletes should be both financed and organizationally located outside of the athletics department. The suggestion that athletics academic advising should report to the vice president for academic affairs in an effort to reduce the perceived and possible conflict of interest within the athletics department is reasonable and enthusiastically endorsed by the FARA executive committee.
There was much less enthusiasm for the Task Force’s recommendation calling for direct report of the compliance director to the university president or chancellor. The executive committee believes that presidents simply do not have time in their schedules or the depth of knowledge needed to deal with compliance as a direct report. An alternative recommendation by the executive committee was to have the compliance director have a dotted reporting line to the president, allowing the compliance director to access the president for major reporting issues when necessary.
While these reactions respond directly to the recommendations outlined in the report, the executive committee believes there are many additional ways to help achieve integration of athletics on our campuses and is currently working on a number of initiatives that move us in this direction. Over the next year, FARA will be involved in designing programs to this end and will be calling on FARs to provide input to the development and promotion of these programs.
Lorrie Clemo is faculty athletics representative at State University of New York at Oswego and past president of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association.
The full integration of athletics into the mission of higher education is a laudable goal. It is a goal that faculty athletics representatives support and commit to in their daily work. As a group, faculty athletics representatives need no convincing — we firmly believe that athletics has an important and integral role to play in the personal and educational development of student-athletes.
Most FARs will readily admit, however, that work must be done before the goal of integration can be widely achieved.
The challenge facing many colleges and universities today is that athletics looks like an entity separate from the university. While few athletics programs can boast financial self-sufficiency, most are perceived as independent enclaves falsely evidenced by the way they are managed and operate within the university.
Adoption of the self-sufficiency model of athletics over the last two decades has greatly diminished the regular and direct communication between the athletics department and the campus. These deteriorating relationships have resulted in a great divide that we are now being challenged to bridge.
To fully align athletics into the mission of higher education, there must be a collective will to act by all constituency groups involved in higher education. The will to act gained some traction with the release of the report of the Presidential Task Force on the Future of Division I Intercollegiate Athletics, and the momentum appears to be growing as a result of the work of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association and other faculty and athletics groups committed to the integration principle.
The Task Force report recommends specific structural and organizational changes to help move us toward complete integration of athletics on college campuses. Additionally, the report recommends greater faculty awareness and involvement in athletics policy issues. FARA executive committee members offer the following best practices for educating and involving the general faculty in issues of athletics and to help athletics become further integrated:
One of the most widely recognized and effective means of involving the general faculty in athletics is through a faculty-team mentoring program. Many colleges and universities have adopted programs like these to bring faculty into the athletics arena as active participants in the student development process. By providing opportunities for observation and face-to-face interaction with student-athletes, coaches, academic support staff, athletics directors and others, faculty gain a better understanding of the role athletics plays in the personal development of student-athletes and are more prepared to discuss policy issues in a constructive manner.
FARs use new-faculty orientation programs or opening convocation programs to discuss the role of the FAR and to describe the responsibilities we have as critical liaisons between the general faculty, university administration and the athletics administration on athletics/academic issues.
On some campuses, FARs have established an extended network of faculty from each department or academic program that serves as academic advisors to student-athletes. Similar to the team-mentoring program, the faculty advisor is given an opportunity to have face-to-face interaction with student-athletes and is also provided the tools and information they need to advise student-athletes for academic success.
Involving faculty governance in athletics can be supported by the FAR in several ways, including regular reports to the faculty senate on a monthly or semester basis; having representation from the faculty senate on the campus athletics committee; and seeking input from faculty governance on the selection and review of the campus faculty athletics representative.
Strongly supported by the executive committee was the recommendation detailed in the Task Force report that athletics academic advising as a support service to student-athletes should be both financed and organizationally located outside of the athletics department. The suggestion that athletics academic advising should report to the vice president for academic affairs in an effort to reduce the perceived and possible conflict of interest within the athletics department is reasonable and enthusiastically endorsed by the FARA executive committee.
There was much less enthusiasm for the Task Force’s recommendation calling for direct report of the compliance director to the university president or chancellor. The executive committee believes that presidents simply do not have time in their schedules or the depth of knowledge needed to deal with compliance as a direct report. An alternative recommendation by the executive committee was to have the compliance director have a dotted reporting line to the president, allowing the compliance director to access the president for major reporting issues when necessary.
While these reactions respond directly to the recommendations outlined in the report, the executive committee believes there are many additional ways to help achieve integration of athletics on our campuses and is currently working on a number of initiatives that move us in this direction. Over the next year, FARA will be involved in designing programs to this end and will be calling on FARs to provide input to the development and promotion of these programs.
Lorrie Clemo is faculty athletics representative at State University of New York at Oswego and past president of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association.
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