The NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee wants a more consistent formula among conferences for selecting and identifying potential candidates to serve within the Division I governance structure.

At its meeting earlier this month, MOIC members offered preliminary reaction to a draft white paper on how to enhance the diversity of individuals serving on Division I committees. The Division I Board of Directors has asked the Leadership Council to lead that review.

In addition to making candidate identification more consistent, MOIC members also want to better prepare those individuals for cabinet-level appointments by building a resume of committee service.

The MOIC has monitored diversity within the Division I governance structure since the division reorganized its structure a year ago. The committee is considering a new program or adding a component to current professional-development initiatives, such as the Fellows program and the Leadership Institute for Ethnic Minority Males and Females, that focus on governance/committee service. Participants who successfully complete that program would then be “certified” as eligible for committee service, even if in some cases they didn’t meet all of the specified criteria.

The committee also spent time at its recent meeting discussing its own composition, considering how to add presidential representation to the group’s makeup. Committee Chair Rudy Keeling, commissioner of the Eastern College Athletic Conference, noted that previous iterations of the group that have included presidents have benefited from their input. Presidential involvement, Keeling said, also fortifies the committee’s credibility.

The MOIC also reviewed a timeline and parameters for its proposed “barriers” study on factors that influence whether ethnic minorities enter, advance and stay in college athletics. The project will be modeled after the “Perceived Barriers to Women in Intercollegiate Athletics Careers” survey, published originally in 1989 and updated in 2008. The new study will retain the same objectives as the barriers study on gender and also will include the perspectives of student-athletes, coaches and administrators. Survey development and approval is expected to continue through the rest of this year. The NCAA research staff will collect data through the fall of 2010 and generate a final report by spring 2011.

In other actions, the MOIC named Dawn Reynolds, associate athletics director at Miami (Florida), to succeed Keeling as chair.