For a college athletics director, scheduling facilities to accommodate practices and games for several teams during a season can be maddening enough. But how about scheduling more than 400 student-athletes representing 20 different teams to all appear at the same location at the same time?

That was the challenge recently facing Roger Haynes, who is entering his second year as director of athletics, recreation and fitness at Monmouth (Illinois).

But Haynes was successful as all of its student-athletes met in the school’s Glennie Gymnasium after the second full day of classes, almost completely filling one side of the bleachers. It may have been the first time in the modern history of the college that all student-athletes had been assembled at once.

“I think it’s important to have some consistency and continuity among our athletics teams and how we run our programs,” said Haynes of the 45-minute meeting. “Sharing things like our common goals and our Social Guidelines Agreement can only help us.”

“Roger has done a great job getting all the teams on the same page and behind the same principles that support our mission,” said Jane Jakoubek, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college.

Items that Haynes and the rest of the Monmouth coaching staff addressed included:

• Goals for the college’s athletics teams, which include student-athletes posting a cumulative grade-point average higher than the campus average and extending a streak of five consecutive Midwest Conference men’s all-sports championships.
• Creating a new leadership council of student-athletes that would address issues on the horizon that are not currently being handled by the college’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. The 40-member council will include two members from each team.
• Academic requirements, specifically related to satisfactory progress toward a degree and academic honesty.
• A review of the Social Guidelines Agreement that Haynes instituted a year ago, which addresses such issues as alcohol and substance abuse, eligibility and travel policies.
• NCAA drug testing, showing a video on the topic.

Student-athletes represent about 30 percent of Monmouth’s fall enrollment of 1,379.