NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland – An Association-wide session entitled “Helping Faculty Understand the Value of Integrating Athletics” offered insights on how to foster a positive relationship between the faculty and athletics.

The January 15 session at the NCAA Convention was sponsored by the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association.

Panelists told a crowded meeting room that communication is critical in nurturing and maintaining a positive and healthy faculty-athletics relationship. Jean Perry, special assistant to the president for athletics, academics and compliance at Nevada, said faculty tend to respond well to data. So, for example, sharing hard facts about the percentage of student-athletes that make up the total student population, the number of academic and leadership awards earned by student-athletes, how many coaches have faculty rank and ways student-athletes contribute to the institution’s diversity can go a long way to helping faculty gain insight into the important role athletics play on a campus.

“It’s like marketing athletics and student-athletes to your own campus,” said Sandra Slabik, director and associate professor of sport management at Neumann. Slabik stressed the importance of emphasizing where and how student-athletes and the athletics department are making contributions on campus.

Another strategy Slabik suggested was establishing a faculty mentor program in which a faculty member is invited to mentor an athletics team as a way of offering that faculty member a behind-the-scenes look at the demands placed upon student-athletes. In a variation of that tactic, another institution invites a faculty member to be a bench coach at home games of athletics teams.

However, the communication isn’t the only way. Panelists agreed that student-athletes must be accountable in terms of being on time and attending class, turning in assignments and letting faculty know of athletics related absences ahead of time.