The Division II Membership Committee has approved Lake Erie College as a full-time member of the division and has accepted applications from seven institutions – including Canadian institution Simon Fraser University – to begin the membership process.

The committee, which met July 7-9 in Indianapolis, also moved six schools into the provisional period and four others into year two of the candidacy period.

The Division II membership process includes a two-year candidacy period and at least one provisional year before institutions are granted active membership.

Lake Erie, which has accepted membership in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, will move 18 of its 20 sports to that league in 2010-11. Its men’s and women’s lacrosse teams will join the East Coast Conference for its inaugural season of varsity competition during the 2009-10 academic year.

“This is a great day for Lake Erie College,” President Michael T. Victor said in a statement on the college’s Web site. “We are excited about the additional opportunities that will be provided to our students, offering them a chance for a more complete college experience.

“Lake Erie College continually strives to achieve a balance between academic excellence and athletics success. This accomplishment contributes to our goals of student-athlete development, strong academic progression, greater recruiting appeal and increased retention.”

Lake Erie was the only institution eligible to achieve active status this year.

The Membership Committee also invited the following institutions to enter year one of the candidacy period, effective September 1:

• Academy of Art University (San Francisco, California)
• Cedarville University (Cedarville, Ohio)
• Minot State University (Minot, North Dakota)
• Notre Dame College (Cleveland, Ohio)
• Simon Fraser University (Burnaby, British Columbia)
• University of Sioux Falls (Sioux Falls, South Dakota)
• William Jewell College (Liberty, Missouri)

Those schools were among 15 institutions that submitted application materials by the June 1 deadline. Simon Fraser is the first Canadian institution to apply for NCAA membership.

The eight institutions whose applications were not accepted are:

• California State University, San Marcos (San Marcos, California)
• Malone University (Canton, Ohio)
• McKendree University (Lebanon, Illinois)
• Monroe College (New York, New York)
• Mount Vernon Nazarene University (Mount Vernon, Ohio)
• Ursuline College (Pepper Pike, Ohio)
• Walsh University (North Canton, Ohio)
• Young Harris College (Young Harris, Georgia)

Committee members did not believe those institutions met all of the conditions cited in a set of “minimum expectations” the panel adopted this past year in sports sponsorship, compliance, personnel, strategic planning and financial aid, among others. Those standards were developed as part of the application to ensure that prospective schools are adequately prepared to enter the membership process and move through the candidacy and provisional periods more efficiently.

“The expectations are meant to provide greater clarity to institutions interested in applying for Division II membership,” said Membership Committee Chair Glenn Stokes, the faculty athletics representative at Columbus State. “These benchmarks provide guidance as to what qualities the committee is looking for in an institution that wants to become a part of Division II.”

Stokes said the guidelines also support the notion of Division II as “a membership destination.”

“The membership-destination ‘slogan’ is a purposeful effort to validate for our current members that they are where they belong as much as it is a billboard to attract new members,” Stokes said. “It is meant to celebrate a collection of existing and prospective members who feel good about abiding by an agreed-upon set of behaviors. While we want to grow Division II membership, we want to do so strategically. If the minimum expectations appear stringent, it is because we want to build our membership based on the attributes we have worked so hard to identify through our strategic-positioning platform.

“That is not to say that the schools whose applications we did not accept at this meeting are not capable of meeting those standards. Some in fact are very close to being where we think they ought to be.”

Institutions have 30 days to appeal the Membership Committee’s decision. They also can re-apply for membership by the next deadline (June 1, 2010).

Candidacy and provisional progression

The Membership Committee also reviewed progress from 11 other institutions currently in the membership process.

The committee agreed to move the following schools from the candidacy period to provisional status, effective September 1:

• University of Arkansas at Fort Smith (Fort Smith, Arkansas)
• University of Illinois at Springfield (Springfield, Illinois)
• King College (Bristol, Tennessee)
• Lincoln University (Lincoln University, Pennsylvania)
• St. Thomas University (Miami Gardens, Florida)
• Urbana University (Urbana, Ohio)

The committee also agreed to move the following institutions from year one of the candidacy period to year two, effective September 1:

• California State University, East Bay (Hayward, California)
• Dominican University of California (San Rafael, California)
• Maryville University of St. Louis (St. Louis, Missouri)
• Ohio Dominican University (Columbus, Ohio)

One other institution, Lambuth University (Jackson, Tennessee), was asked to repeat year one of the candidacy period.