Feedback Forum is a monthly feature designed to highlight key issues or potential policy changes and solicit immediate feedback from the membership.

The types of issues on which Feedback Forum will seek input are:

Proposed policy and procedural changes. Periodically, the national office staff is asked to change, revise or eliminate a policy or procedure that may affect member institutions, conferences or the general public. If the suggested changes are legislative in nature and contained in the Manual, it would be necessary for them to be considered in accordance with the policies established by each division. There are instances, however, in which the changes being suggested are not legislative in nature; rather, they are procedural and are left to the discretion of the appropriate oversight committee and/or staff. In such cases, because the changes may affect member institutions, it would be advantageous for the staff to receive input from member schools as to how the oversight committee and/or national office should proceed.

Proposed rule-making changes. NCAA committees and cabinets routinely seek feedback on key issues they are addressing. This feedback is sought through a variety of means (for example, circulation of agendas and supplements before meetings, direct mailings soliciting feedback). Though the staff will continue to solicit membership feedback in those ways, Feedback Forum will highlight key issues being discussed before important meetings in order for the appropriate committees to receive membership input to help guide their decisions.

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This month's Feedback Forum features a potential policy change regarding the enforcement and certification processes. Both the Committee on Infractions and the Committee on Athletics Certification meet in October to consider the following matter.

Since the certification process was established in 1993, steps have been taken to ensure that it is separate from the enforcement process.

There is a provision in the Manual that allows the Committee on Infractions to ask the certification committee to revisit an institution's certification status based on an infractions case. However, this provision never has been used.

In the past, there has been virtually no communication between the NCAA enforcement staff and the athletics certification staff regarding any institution that is involved in either process.

The issue at hand is that the certification program loses credibility when the certification committee certifies an institution and the infractions committee puts that same school on probation shortly afterward.

The athletics certification staff and the enforcement staff are considering the following procedure to address the concern:

The membership services staff will notify enforcement of schools going through the certification process, and enforcement will inform membership services if an identified school has received a notice of inquiry. Such information will improve the timing of certification press releases so that the certification committee is not certifying schools just before the school is placed on probation. This change will not eliminate the problem, but it will reduce the chances of occurrence.

The certification committee and the infractions committee will vote on this change in October. Both committees are interested in receiving feedback from the membership regarding this change in policy before they make their decisions.

To provide input, contact Keith Gill, NCAA director of membership services, at kgill@ncaa.org.