The NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee has tabled discussion about legislation it crafted related to schools’ hiring practices after the proposal was returned by all three divisions.

At its September meeting in Indianapolis, the group pondered how to proceed after Association-wide legislation it forwarded for consideration was returned to the committee by the Division I Administrative Cabinet and Divisions II and III Management Councils. Under the MOIC proposal, every NCAA member institution would have been required to submit annually to the group data demonstrating that the athletics department’s employment practices comply with institutional hiring policies. Scheduled to have become effective next September, the legislation would make submitting the data a condition and obligation for membership in all three divisions.

The division governance bodies that reviewed the proposal agreed with the intent of encouraging athletics hiring policies to ensure a diverse applicant pool, but they were confused about how the legislation would be administered and, ultimately, enforced. All three groups requested additional details, such as the penalties for noncompliance, how the legislation related to current federal and institutional requirements, who would be responsible for collecting the submitted data, and the specific information the MOIC was seeking as part of the request.

Further, the Division III Management Council asked the MOIC to respond to the benefits of reporting the data each year since the division already requires institutions to review their hiring practices on a five-year basis as part of the Institutional Self-Study Guide. The Division II Management Council also referred the item to its Division II Diversity Project Team for further consideration.

MOIC Chair Rudy Keeling still believes that some kind of legislation is necessary to ensure that institutions’ athletics departments are following state and federal hiring laws.

“The MOIC feels that the hiring practices of athletics departments should mirror their institutions’ actual hiring practices. If they don’t, then there should be some cause for alarm by the administrations at those schools,” Keeling said. “That is why we want this legislation to be adopted.”

Now that the legislation will not be considered at the 2009 NCAA Convention as the committee had hoped, members considered options that could make the proposal more appealing, such as modifying it or possibly linking it to already established legislation. Since they were unable to reach a decision at this meeting, though, members agreed to table the matter until the MOIC’s February meeting.

Emerging sports and SCA

In other actions at the September meeting, MOIC members responded to a request from the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics to support legislation related to emerging sports. In three separate recommendations, the CWA is seeking to amend NCAA Divisions I, II and III Bylaws 18.2.4.1 to remove the years associated with a legislative exception to permit the establishment an women’s championship if at least 40 schools sponsor the sport (which will eliminate the need for the membership to periodically take legislative action to extend the time period associated with the exception); to add sand volleyball and remove archery, badminton, synchronized swimming and team handball as emerging sports; and to add equestrian as an emerging sport for Division III. 

The MOIC agreed to support all of those, except for the deletion of synchronized swimming from the emerging-sports list. The MOIC cited a recently launched diversity initiative from by USA Swimming, the sport’s governing body, as reason to keep the sport active as an emerging sport for women. 

The MOIC also reiterated its support for additional educational efforts regarding sudden cardiac arrest after hearing a presentation from a liaison to the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports. Research has indicated that student-athletes of color are disproportionately affected by the condition, which has been a catalyst for some member institutions to screen with electrocardiograms.

David Klossner, NCAA director of health and safety, noted several initiatives that are currently in place or being launched across the membership to address the issue, including legislation recently passed to address playing and practice season regulations and heat-related stress in football, and another bylaw requiring a medical examination. Also, Division III is proposing legislation to require head coaches to be certified in first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillator  use – a proposal the MOIC supports.

Diversity in the governance structure

The MOIC also examined possible reasons that few ethnic minority administrators seek positions within the Association’s governance structure. The group heard from Bernard Franklin and Delise O’Meally of the NCAA staff, who noted that the issue grew from a concern that ethnic minorities already engaged in the governance structure were being repeatedly tapped for committee service, which tends to restrict opportunities for other people of color.

The primary concern, though, is data showing the paucity of ethnic minorities holding senior leadership positions within schools, athletics departments and conferences. Administrators selected for committee service are generally drawn from the pool of university/college presidents, athletics directors, and associate and assistant athletics directors, positions in which the numbers of ethnic minorities have consistently remained low.

The committee called for a two-pronged approach that would involve both short- and long-term remedies, such as increasing educational efforts about how to become involved with committee service and aggressively pushing for increased diversity among the senior leadership within athletics departments and conferences.

The challenge, Keeling said, is making this issue an Association-wide concern.

“Diversity is among the governing principles of the NCAA,” Keeling said. “Consequently, the Association must be committed to addressing this issue.”