The Pacific-10 Conference is recommending that its members adopt a policy to include ethnic minorities and females in searches to hire coaches and administrators.

The recommendation comes from the conference's Diversity Leadership Initiative Committee, chaired by Myles Lynk, the faculty athletics representative at Arizona State.

The league recommends that for all coach and administrator searches, institutions should make good-faith efforts to include at least one ethnic minority candidate in the pool of interviewees when hiring an administrator, a head football coach or a men's/women's basketball coach. In addition, it is recommended that at least one female candidate be included in the pool of interviewees for any head coaching position in any women's sport.

Pacific-10 officials also approved annual funding for participation in several quality leadership development programs for current ethnic minority males and female athletics administrators.

In addition to approving the annual funding for those programs, the league identified 10 nominees to participate in the programs, pending their acceptance into those programs.

Funding has been approved to cover all tuition and costs of participation for either the NCAA Leadership Development Institute or the Sports Management Institute.

“The Pac-10 has been at the forefront of the movement to increase the numbers of minorities and women in coaching and administrative positions in intercollegiate athletics,” said Commissioner Tom Hansen. “The adoption of these policies should further increase opportunities in both areas, and sponsoring participation in the two leadership initiatives will assist in the professional development of women and minorities who already have embarked on careers in college athletics administration. These initiatives have strong support in the conference, including on the presidential level.”