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Jun 21, 2010 1:20:11 PM

The NCAA News

 

Division II chief executives now have two important new tools to aid them in oversight of their intercollegiate athletics programs.

The first is a comprehensive set of questions that presidents should ask to effectively oversee the administration of their intercollegiate athletics program. The second is a set of dashboard indicators that should help presidents make comparisons through the use of data. Both were formally unveiled Saturday at the Division II Presidents and Chancellors Summit in Indianapolis.

The questions were provided to the presidents in the form of a pamphlet called the "Chancellors and Presidents Athletics Oversight Summary." The 4x8-inch foldout contains 13 categories that presidents should consider in achieving effective oversight over their athletics programs throughout the year. They are:

• Budget issues
• Goals and strategic plan
• Governing board
• Key issues
• Hiring practices
• Personnel
• Rules compliance
• Health and safety
• Academics
• Life skills/student-athlete events
• Student-athlete experience
• Strategic communications
• Diversity issues

In all, the product advances 80 questions, which – if answered thoroughly – should help ensure that appropriate details have been assessed. Metro State President Stephen Jordan said the oversight summary should be essential, both as a communication tool and as an aid for the completion of the Division II Institutional Self-Study Guide, which must be completed once every five years.

"Over the course of the last couple of years, things that have been added to the ISSG that are more philosophical or strategic," he said, "areas such as gender equity, diversity, hiring practices or initiatives that are related to our division's strategic plan. If you start to conceptualize what we're trying to do with the ISSG, it really does two things: It says, are you doing things right, and are you doing the right thing?"

Jordan suggested sharing the oversight summary not only with key athletics personnel but also with groups such as governing boards "so they understand the kinds of issues that you as president are prepared to engage in as you are moving forward with your athletics program."

As for the Division II dashboard indicators, the presidents heard from Washburn President Jerry Farley, who led the team that developed the tool.

 "You have a tool now that you can use to stimulate discussion, to clean up some of your data and to begin to think about the future of where athletics is going from a strategic perspective," Farley said.

The tool provides for 16 indicators, although the presidential view page provides for only the six that have been deemed to be the most important:

• Student fees
• Total athletics revenue
• Athletics aid
• Coaches/administrative staff compensation
• Team travel
• Academic Success Rate

Once into their areas of interest, presidents can sort and stratify the material to find comparisons over a single year or to identify trends. Comparisons can be made with conferences, customized groups, football-playing institutions, public vs. private or actual athletics expenditures.

The dashboard has already been shared with Division II presidents, and the feedback has been good. The tool is easily shared within campuses (although there have been problems where the lengthy URL has been cut off in e-mail transmissions, thus making the program inaccessible. If care is taken to transmit the complete URL, any authorized personnel should be able to use the tool.)

In addition to the aggregate comparisons with other institutions and conferences, the dashboard provides a summary of data that each institution has submitted. Not only does that feature provide ready access, it also creates an opportunity for review when numbers appear to be incorrect.

The dashboard also gives presidents the opportunity to create various "what-if" scenarios that can guide their decision-making.

The tool was developed in collaboration with the National Association of College and University Business Officers. A similar program was previously launched in Division I.

Although the dashboard was designed to aid presidents and athletics directors, Farley said he plans to broaden the use.

"What I'm going to do is sit down with my athletics director and my coaches because coaches need to know what the picture really is," he said. "The coaches, depending on where they stand in their sport will see it as either useful or not useful to them. The ones that are maybe below the 50 percentile, they will see the opportunities. They'll see if they want to compete at the top level of our conference, they need to be up here. So I'm looking forward to sitting down with the coaches and our athletics director and going through the data."