FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – The NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee made diversifying the governance structure one of its top priorities during a recent meeting.

Noting that the Division I Leadership Council and the Divisions II and Division III Presidents Councils are focusing on diversity within their ranks, the MOIC, which met February 4-5, is positioning itself to help the Association move toward a more inclusive environment.

The MOIC charged its legislative and governance subcommittee with exploring the issue and generating recommendations for the full committee in July. Whatever strategies are ultimately implemented, the MOIC believes success will come through not only focusing on recruiting, hiring, developing and retaining racial/ethnic minority administrators and coaches throughout the membership, but also engaging presidents and chancellors in creating effective solutions.

MOIC Chair Rudy Keeling, commissioner of the Eastern College Athletic Conference, acknowledged that achieving the goal of a more diverse governance structure will be challenging but well worth the effort.

“Diversifying anything, it’s been proven, makes it better. For the MOIC, this is our calling. This is why we were formed,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a matter of people not wanting this. It’s a matter of how and having the bodies.”

The lack of numbers of racial/ethnic minorities at the senior management level is one hurdle the committee, and more broadly, the membership, will face in achieving a more diverse governance structure.

The MOIC reviewed data from the NCAA research staff on the racial and ethnic composition of conference office personnel, athletics administrative staff, head coaches and student-athletes. According to 2007-08 figures, ethnic minorities made up 15.5 percent of conference personnel and 14.4 percent of the athletics administrative staffs (including Historically Black Colleges and Universities and conferences) at NCAA schools. Data from 2008 also indicated that 19 percent, 43 percent and 42 percent of Divisions I, II and III committees, respectively, had no racial/ethnic minority representation. That included the NCAA Executive Committee. (The Board of Directors has just one racial/ethnic minority.) Fifty percent of sports rules committees and 80 percent of sport committees also had no racial/ethnic minority representation.

The committee also reviewed the diversity-related portions of the Divisions II and III strategic plans and examined results from the Barriers study, a repeat of a 1989 study that focused on reasons why females do or do not enter or stay in intercollegiate athletics.

The committee identified other possible barriers to boosting the numbers of racial/ethnic minorities in the structure, including concerns that administrators and coaches may not know how to become involved in committee service and that, despite wide dissemination, notifications of committee vacancies may not always reach potential committee members who are eligible to participate. In addition, the MOIC noted that Divisions II and III institutional and conference personnel may be discouraged from committee service because of the strain it would cause on department or conference office resources.

In addition to its diversity discussion, the MOIC also:

• Reaffirmed support for educational efforts regarding the Sudden Cardiac Arrest initiative. Research shows that student-athletes of color are disproportionately affected by the condition, which has been a catalyst for some member institutions to screen with electrocardiograms.
• Reviewed the Matching Grants for the Advancement of Minority Coaches and Officials program. MOIC members stressed that the program does not require a “one for one” match and that potential grant recipients need to show only that they are significantly contributing to the match amount awarded by the NCAA. The MOIC suggested that grant recipients should be evaluated under the same criteria and that sample proposals should be made available to provide potential grant recipients with guidelines for acceptable proposals. In addition, the MOIC recommended specifying that receipt of matching funds should be contingent on submission of a final report from the grant recipient, and that MOIC members should attend grant-funded events, when possible, to evaluate whether programs meet the grant objectives.