The faculty-senate-based Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics has issued a call for more diligence from athletics departments about the courses student-athletes take at their schools.

In light of media reports last month about some athletes at the University of Michigan being “clustered” in less-challenging academic programs and allowed to enroll in independent-study courses as a way to improve their grade-point averages, the COIA is reiterating its appeal for universities to adopt a proposal to collect data on enrollment and grading patterns of student-athletes.

“The COIA has not investigated the charges at Michigan; it is not our role to do so and thus we take no position on the merits and specifics of the allegations,” the statement reads. “We point out, however, that we have previously taken note of similar accusations at other universities and have warned of the potential for such abusive practices in the absence of explicit policies and controls to prevent them.”

The COIA, an alliance of 56 Division I faculty senates interested in advancing academic reform, stated in a 2007 white paper called “Framing the Future: Reforming Intercollegiate Athletics” that data on student-athletes’ choice of major should be gathered and evaluated by the campus faculty governance body or the Campus Athletic Board and should also be provided to all prospective recruits. Also, to preserve academic integrity, the COIA called for the campus faculty governance body or the Campus Athletic Board to monitor student-athlete enrollment by course.

The organization’s statement in light of the Michigan case said “such data should be designed to reveal whether there are clusters of athletes enrolled in identical courses or in courses with identical instructors, unusually high class GPAs in such courses or from such instructors, or grades significantly higher than predicted for athletes as compared to others in such courses or from such instructors.”

The COIA statement also warns of the potential for athletics departments to suggest less-demanding coursework for student-athletes as a way to focus more on eligibility than education. “Schools may be enhancing the Academic Progress Rates of their teams by steering athletes to courses that are not necessarily in their best academic and vocational interests, encouraging them to enroll in independent-study courses that are not, in fact, consistent with the spirit and rationale for individualized research and scholarship, and by directing them to majors and programs that are designed mainly for athletes,” the statement said.