A recent online survey exploring aspects of Division III athletics – a key step leading to creation of a “strategic communication platform” for the division later this year – attracted more than 3,000 responses.

The survey is an important step in an effort led by Division III presidents to create a platform designed to communicate the division’s distinctive approach to intercollegiate athletics, based on input from as broad a range of voices as possible.

Among other outcomes, the effort seeks to better equip Division III member schools to explain to internal and external constituencies the division’s unique approach to athletics and why they subscribe to it.

Presidents, student-athletes, institutional and conference administrators, coaches, and faculty were asked to participate in the survey during June, and preliminary results indicate that responses were received from 400 of Division III’s 441 active and provisional member institutions.

“We’ve sought and received feedback from a variety of constituencies within Division III, being as inclusive as possible,” said Dan Dutcher, Division III vice president. “We think the responses will be very helpful in moving this process forward.”

The survey was especially successful in soliciting views from student-athletes and from faculty members. Combined, they constituted nearly half of the respondents, said consultant Jeff Jacobs, who previously has worked with the NCAA on branding and identity efforts including the project that resulted in the “most student-athletes will go pro in something other than sports” campaign.

The response rates indicate that athletics directors at member institutions were very helpful in encouraging student-athlete participation and that faculty athletics representatives were effective in encouraging colleagues on campuses to respond, he said.

The survey represented Division III’s broadest effort ever to measure how various constituencies at member institutions perceive the division’s philosophy statement and to better understand why student-athletes participate in its athletics programs.

It is one of several ways in which opinions have been solicited from the Division III membership.

Before the survey, Jacobs conducted more than 60 on-campus and telephone interviews, seeking views from various constituencies on the division’s student-athlete experience and perceptions of the Division III philosophy.

Feedback also is being sought this summer at gatherings ranging from Regional Rules Seminars to meetings of such groups as the Division III Commissioners Association, National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators and the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.

Responses from the survey now are being analyzed and will be used in shaping the proposed strategic communications platform that first will be shared in August with the Division III Presidents Council and its Presidents and Chancellors Advisory Board.

The purpose of the platform is to establish a consistent theme for use in telling what Presidents Council Chair Paul Trible has called Division III’s “story” and for choosing whatever tools may be employed to activate that effort. Those tools could include slogans, signage, media, programming or other appropriate methods for use by Division III and its member institutions.

Current plans call for the Council to present details and objectives of the program at next January’s NCAA Convention.