Education services

Inventory of career traits available to job aspirants

The Pathfinder Career Systems Inventory — a survey that can help examine whether a person aspiring to be an athletics administrator or head coach possesses the behavioral traits needed to be a high performer in those professions — is now accessible online.

The NCAA is collaborating with Cash, Lehman & Associates of Toronto, Ontario, on the project. The company has developed a process featuring competency-based modeling. It attempts to define predictors of future success in the athletics industry.

The inventory takes the competencies of high performers at the administrative and coaching levels to seek benchmarked answers as to why they perform their jobs so well.

Those competencies, along with skill, knowledge and experience competencies, combine to provide a complete career profile. Skill, knowledge and experience are gained over time and support the behavioral competencies gleaned from the report.

The results of the inventory can show a person which areas he or she needs to improve on before seeking an athletics director’s or head coach’s position. At the same time, the results can be a tool for employers to use when trying to narrow a field of job candidates.

The initial cost of the inventory is $99. More information can be obtained at www2.ncaa.org/portal/employment/path finder.html.

Mascots

Staff panel handles appeals involving two institutions

A staff review committee has retained McMurry University and removed Catawba College from a list of institutions subject to restrictions on the use of Native American mascots, names and imagery at NCAA championships.

The committee, designated by the NCAA Executive Committee to review institutions’ initial appeals, noted McMurry’s statement that use of its “Indians” nickname has a celebratory and educational intent, rooted in the desire of the founding president of the university to show respect for the Kaw Indian Nation. However, the committee determined that “well-intentioned motives are not sufficient to overcome the harm done by stereotypical nicknames that can create hostile or abusive environments.”

McMurry may appeal the decision to the Executive Committee.

In acting to remove Catawba from the list, the staff committee noted that the institution’s use of the name “Catawba Indians” and associated imagery has received the approval of the Catawba Indian Nation.

However, the committee’s action applies only to use of the name “Catawba Indians” and not to the use of the generic term “Indians.”

Partnership

Habitat for Humanity needs volunteers along Gulf Coast

Habitat for Humanity is seeking hundreds of volunteers through the summer and into the forseeable future as it actively continues building along the Gulf Coast as part of its hurricane recovery program, Operation Home Delivery.

Volunteers are needed to help build homes in partnership with families in need in the Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The organization’s goal is to build 1,000 homes by mid-summer 2007. Currently, more than 220 homes are under construction or have been completed in the region.

Those interested in learning about the hurricane recovery program and volunteer opportunities can do so at the organization’s Web site: www.habitat.org. Volunteers can register by clicking on the Operation Home Delivery logo at the Web site and following the link: “Get involved in other ways.”

 The NCAA formed a three-year partnership with Habitat for Humanity International following last fall’s devastating hurricane season.The relationship, called “Home Team,” was created to raise funds and provide volunteer labor to assist in long-term rebuilding efforts on the Gulf Coast.