With consensus hard enough to reach these days among large groups, Division II presidents and chancellors remarkably achieved unanimity to pledge their support for creating positive, family-friendly environments at Division II athletics contests.

All 276 presidents and chancellors from active Division II member institutions have signed the game-environment pledge form, which commits to staging athletics events that “reflect the values of higher education and the mission of each institution.”

“Division II emphasizes learning and development in a personal setting,” the pledge states. “As chancellors and presidents, we are concerned about the uncivil behavior exhibited at college athletics contests and thereby pledge to work together to make respectful, family-friendly events a standard of the Division II experience.”

The pledge concept emerged from a meeting of the Division II Presidents Council and chairs of the conference presidential leadership groups in April. Those participants were the first to sign on, and they set a goal of having all Division II presidents sign the form by the Convention. That mission has now been accomplished.

“The game-environment effort is a strategic component of Division II’s emphasis on community engagement,” Division II Presidents Council Chair Stephen Jordan said in an interview with The NCAA News January 6. “It started with Division II actually changing its bylaws – deregulating rules regarding competitive equity to facilitate community engagement – realizing that colleges and universities are part of the community and that athletics is a great way to attract community members to our campuses. With that in place, if we do not have the right kind of game environment – fan-friendly, affordable, where people can engage in cheering for teams but not against them – if we can create that kind of positive environment, then we really can achieve this vision of engagement with our colleges and communities.”

Jordan said achieving a 100 percent commitment reflects the kind of leadership presidents have displayed to advance Division II ever since the pivotal 2005 summit at which the Division II strategic-positioning platform was born.

“The pledge is but an outward expression,” Jordan said. “As you dig deeper in conversations with the commissioners and athletics directors associations, there is a genuine interest and commitment from them as well to be part of the solution. Even in my own conference, expectations are high about what game environment should be – about how visiting teams should expect to be received when they arrive, about what the authority of the conference commissioner might be to enforce standards, and about the importance of presidents to call their colleagues if there are issues.”

Jordan’s reference is to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, of which his Metropolitan State College is a member, committing to setting league-wide standards and holding presidents and administrators accountable for maintaining them. The RMAC document should be ready by the time league members meet at the Convention.

There also is evidence to support the momentum Jordan mentioned. After the pledge form was introduced in April 2008 for example, several conferences made it a point to be the first to garner pledges from each league member. Then, the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference took matters a step further, pledging at its meeting in June for GLIAC presidents to call each other if they became aware of game environments at league contests that were substandard.

“Obviously, I’m not going to call a colleague and demand that he or she change fan behavior,” Ferris State President David Eisler said after the conference meeting. “Rather, I would call and say, ‘I don’t know whether you’re aware of this, but I witnessed this kind of behavior (or it was reported to me), and this was our reaction as an institution. I’m not suggesting what you should or shouldn’t do about this, but I wanted you to be aware of it.’

“That kind of a call seems very appropriate to me and very easily done, and I think it would make a difference. To me, if my colleague and I sign that pledge, then we have an obligation to let each other know if people don’t behave well. It’s one thing to sign a pledge, but another to be held accountable for the behavior at your contests.”

The game-environment momentum continued when several leagues spread the message downward from presidents and chancellors to athletics directors, senior woman administrators and faculty athletics representatives.

The Northeast-10 in fact modified its game-environment pledge to include athletics directors in the first line.

“The conference is behind this initiative, and while the presidents can agree to the pledge – and we are certainly excited that they have – it’s really the ADs who will have the most direct contact with spectators, coaches and student-athletes,” said New Haven Athletics Director Debbie Chin, who also chairs the Division II Management Council. “With that kind of connection, it’s time for athletics directors to step up. While we can and should have the kind of president-to-president accountability being talked about at that level, athletics directors in our conference should work to ensure that these issues don’t have to rise to the presidential level in order to be addressed.”

The momentum figures to continue as more conferences build their own best practices and hold members accountable for their behavior. The effort has been successful enough already to earn Association-wide attention as the NCAA works to emphasize good sportsmanship at all college sports events. An Association-wide panel will present at the Convention in fact to announce a comprehensive approach for the membership.

“There is a genuine belief in this initiative throughout Division II, and it is catching on with the Association at large,” Jordan said. “There will be an Association-wide panel at the Convention in fact that has sportsmanship in the title, but it really is more broadly about game environment.”

For more on the Division II game environment effort, see the resource page online.