As an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, Petrina Long tutored student-athletes as part of her work-study job. In a stroke of good timing, when she graduated there was an opening to direct the program.

Given that opportunity, she waded right in and stayed, an outcome that has now benefited the revamped Division I governance structure.

In the 30 years or so since, Long has served at five major universities – both public and private, at all levels of Division I and in different regions of the country. It has all added up to vast  experience working with student-athletes and coaches in a variety of settings.

It is that broad perspective and wide-ranging experience that Long believes has best prepared her to serve as the first chair of the Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issues Cabinet.

Charged with direct responsibility for NCAA Bylaw 13 matters, the Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issues Cabinet – along with the Student-Athlete Awards, Benefits and Financial Aid Cabinet and the Championships/Sports Management Cabinet – replaces the former Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet and Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet.

Currently a senior associate athletics director and senior woman administrator at UCLA, Long has definite ideas about what the recruiting cabinet can accomplish. Among the group’s top priorities will be work-life balance issues for coaches and administrators, student-athlete welfare, and technology.

Long sees recruiting as another area in which the intercollegiate athletics arms race is manifesting itself. She stresses the welfare of student-athletes, particularly the way the NCAA approaches recruiting, and notes the influence of rapidly changing technology on recruiting.

“We definitely need to continue to get ahead of technology, which is something we’ve been grappling with and it’s very difficult,” she said. “Technology drives recruiting methods and it’s changing so quickly that I think the legislation is having trouble keeping up.”

As the cabinet prepares to begin its work, Long believes clear communication between the cabinet and the membership will be critical. “The devil is in the details in terms of communicating back out to the membership so everyone understands what has gone back into the rationale,” she said.

Using her tenure on Academics and Eligibility Cabinet as an example, Long said she knows first-hand that committees and cabinets can do good work and generate great resolutions. However, reporting those results back to the membership is key.

“Our cabinets are here to serve the membership and we want them to participate, recognizing that the governance structure is sometimes hard for people in the membership to grapple with,” she said. “If student-athletes, coaches and administrators have input, we want to embrace people’s input.”

The Recruiting and Athletics Personnel Issues Cabinet will meet for the first time on September 18-19 in Indianapolis.