Division II has encouraged its members to join the division’s strategic initiatives with awards for community-engagement and game-environment efforts.

But the division’s latest incentive comes with an accountability catch.

As part of its Game-Environment Recognition Program, Division II is offering schools a sharp-looking banner that proclaims their commitment to promoting a family-friendly atmosphere at athletics contests. However, schools must complete a rigorous self-assessment to acquire the banner in the first place, and then they must live up to the tenets of the program.

Neither standard has been a deterrent so far, as about three dozen schools already have their banners in place. That’s significant, since the effort required resembles what is required for an Institutional Self-Study Guide or a compliance blueprint.

Division II institutions receive the banner only after the president or chancellor and the athletics director acknowledge that they have considered and discussed a self-assessment tool covering coach, spectator, student and support-group behavior. The self-assessment challenges institutional personnel to address relevant areas, including those that don’t relate directly to sportsmanship, to ensure that athletics events reflect well on the institution and promote the values of higher education.

Among the questions:

Are your coaches instructed to interact appropriately with game officials when calls are disputed? 

Are concession staff members adequately trained? 

What steps has your institution taken to ensure the comfort of the fans (for example, surveying their needs; maintaining clean restrooms; providing adequate nearby parking, chairback seats and pleasant entryways)? 

Do you enlist student leadership on your campus to help create a better game environment at your athletics events?

Do you explicitly prohibit the band or cheer squads from leading or encouraging abusive cheers? If so, how is this policy enforced? 

What steps do you take to remind spectators that the competition taking place is a part of the educational experience? 

Does your institution’s conference provide a way for visiting teams to cite poor treatment, with the expectation that the problem will be remedied?

The self-assessment demands a campus-wide approach to complete, much like the division’s compliance and self-study examinations. That’s fine with most athletics departments since it’s another way to raise awareness – and attendance – at athletics events.

“The key to the process is to approach it with the same integrity as you would the ISSG or a compliance blueprint review,” said Eckerd Athletics Director Bob Fortosis, a member of the Division II Management Council. “Use it to find if there are areas that need improvement and ways in which to accomplish that, not to identify a deficiency you want to hide.

“You also want to involve a lot of people, because there often are varying perspectives on how successful a department is in accomplishing those priorities.”

Sandra Michael, the AD at Holy Family, feels the same way. She said her staff discussed the self-assessment among coaches, administrators, student-athletes, SAAC members and the faculty representative.

“The process involved everyone, including our president,” she said. “Hanging the banner gives us a chance to publicly showcase who we are.”

Michael stands behind the effort.

“Am I nervous about publicly making that statement?” she asked. “Not at all. I want to be able to say proudly that this is the game environment we intend to conduct in our facilities. If people are nervous about it, then they aren’t the type we would want on our staff.”

Some schools have used the game-environment recognition campaign to bolster existing efforts on campus. Dan Blair, the assistant AD for compliance at Franklin Pierce, said it supplements “Pierce Pride,” which AD Bruce Kirsch helped launch several years ago. Now, in addition to having completed the self-assessment tool and hung the banner in the field house, Franklin Pierce officials are introducing the game-environment effort as part of this year’s orientation for the entire freshman class, not just the student-athletes.

Afterward, participants can sign a game-environment pledge sheet (similar to the one Division II presidents and chancellors signed last year) and receive a Pierce Pride T-shirt.

“We’re using this to show everyone what we expect as far as game environment during our athletics contests,” Blair said. He noted that the school’s upcoming Labor Day soccer tournament will kick off this year’s campaign.

Fortosis said although banners provide a visual reminder of the institution’s commitment, the display comes with some risk if a few people behave badly. “The tendency in our culture is to extrapolate the behaviors of one to the many, and that certainly could make us look hypocritical or feel embarrassed at times,” he said.

“But I’d rather have that banner hanging up there. It shows what our goals and values are. To me, a lot of what we do in intercollegiate athletics is about accountability.”

Southern Connecticut State AD Patricia Nicol agrees. “The nature of what we do is accountability,” she said. “(Having the banner visible) doesn’t make me nervous at all.”

Division II Vice President Mike Racy is thrilled that so many Division II members are taking the game-environment initiative to heart. When the campaign began two years ago as an extension of Division II’s community-engagement effort, it was difficult for some people to recognize that game environment was more than simply a push for sportsmanship.

“It’s about making sure your high-level program attracts community members and others with an entertaining product in a comfortable venue that emphasizes the collegiate model of athletics,” Racy said. “Community engagement doesn’t work unless you stage your athletics events within a positive game environment, because if you don’t, those community members won’t want to return. Division II presidents and chancellors have understood that as a business model and have supported this initiative from the start.”

“Our goal is to want people who come to our games to make it a good memory – to have it become part of their family culture,” Fortosis said. “To me, that’s what the game-environment initiative is about – creating that family atmosphere that people don’t just visit but call their own.”

Now, Division II schools will have the visual to help them own the effort as well.

“This reflects our institutional mission,” Michael said. “No one is surprised that this would be something we’d want to tout, even through a visual that holds us accountable for our actions. It’s a means of representing our institution – and we take that very seriously.”