The Division III Strategic Initiatives Grant Program more explicitly will promote the philosophy of integrating athletics into campus life, under a recommendation by the Division III Strategic Planning and Finance Committee.

The committee is recommending a fourth use for funds provided to conferences and independent institutions through “Tier Two” of the program – the area of the three-tiered program through which the largest share of about $1.8 million currently is distributed annually.

During 2009-10, the program’s fourth year, conferences will continue allocating funds to programming in the areas of student-athlete well-being and community service, sportsmanship, and diversity and gender equity.

However, the recommendation calls for conferences also to use funds during the program’s next four-year cycle beginning in 2010-11 to support what the committee is calling “integration institutes.”

Such programs, like one presented recently by the Landmark Conference, seek to encourage collaboration among presidents, athletics directors, faculty, coaches and student-athletes – who otherwise may have few opportunities to work together – in addressing athletics issues.

Committee members agreed that such programs serve Tier Two’s general objective of supporting the integration of athletics into institutions and conferences. The goal will be for the membership to access a “turn-key” program based upon several successful pilot institutes facilitated by the College Sports Project and funded through Tier Two.

The recommendation will be presented next week to the Division III Management Council and ultimately must be approved by the Division III Presidents Council.

The committee also is recommending more flexibility in the requirement that the equivalent of one year’s funding must be applied during the four-year cycle to each of Tier Two’s program areas. Basically, the committee agreed to permit a conference to allocate more funds in one area compared to another, so long as it can provide justification that one area of programming needs more attention, or another area can be fully served less expensively.

The Strategic Initiatives Grant Program, established during the 2006-07 academic year, transferred responsibility for administration of grant funding from the NCAA national office to conferences and the Association of Division III Independents. The idea was that conferences and independent institutions should decide for themselves the best ways to use funds for programs that support Division III’s strategic priorities, within established guidelines.

The program also targets professional development, education and communication among key constituencies through its “Tier One” and enhancement of conference operations through its “Tier Three.”

In other recommendations involving the program, the committee:

• Supported allocating $75,000 in the 2010-11 to support attendance at a pilot Faculty Athletics Representatives Association Fellows Institute for Division III faculty representatives. The institute, similar to a program currently conducted in Division II, is designed to provide professional development and leadership training to experienced FARs.
• Supported providing additional funding in Tier One for an annual meeting/workshop for conference sports information directors, for the purpose of increasing professional-development opportunities. The SIDs currently meet every two years.
• Supported providing additional funding in Tier One for a minority individual to represent a conference at least once during a two-year period in an educational or professional-development opportunity, including but not limited to programming offered by the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association.