NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland – The Division III Presidents Council prepared Thursday to move its “white papers” initiative into a phase that ultimately may determine the division’s agenda for several years.

Council members reviewed the nine papers it first issued in September during its meeting at the NCAA Convention, giving particular attention to documents addressing presidential leadership, and the division’s philosophy and identity.

They next will ask the more than 100 institutional presidents who are attending the Convention – and have been invited Friday to a luncheon/forum focusing on the papers -- to help establish priorities for the initiative.

Though the papers were born as a means of addressing membership-growth issues after Division III decided not to pursue restructuring, Council members generally see them now as a roadmap that leads to renewed support for the division’s philosophy statement – while positioning presidents to provide leadership in addressing fundamental issues.

The Council spent significant time discussing one likely product of that leadership: an effort to define and promote Division III’s identity.

Council Vice Chair Paul Trible of Christopher Newport, who will succeed Franklin & Marshall’s John Fry as the group’s chair after the Convention, said the philosophy-related discussions the membership has conducted dating back to 2004’s Future of Division III agenda already have equipped the division to begin to “tell the story of the power of the educational experience that we offer for student-athletes.”

Even with the challenges of membership growth and institutions’ diversity of missions, “more unites us than divides us,” Trible said.

Telling that story emerged as a bit of a theme during several Division III events Thursday, including a breakfast discussion involving members of the Division III Presidents and Management Councils and the Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. It was even more prominently expressed in a forum on “Academics, Athletics and Today’s Sports Culture – Expectations and Realities.”

The forum was inspired by a series of articles by one of the session’s panelists, New York Times writer Bill Pennington, who explored why prospective student-athletes and their parents expect more scholarship support than they typically receive for playing college sports. Other panelists, representing a variety of Division III institutions, pitched the division’s student-athlete experience as an attractive alternative to seeking a scholarship.

That attention to identity and other Division III interests continues in Friday’s presidential luncheon. The Presidents Council also plans to report on the “white papers” initiative during Saturday’s Division III business session.

Legislative actions

In preparation for the business session, the Council also took actions on two proposals slated for consideration.

Acting on recommendations from the Division III Management Council, the presidents agreed to withdraw the portion of Proposal No. 7 that would establish equestrian as an emerging sport for women. As a result, the membership will be asked to vote only on the portions of the proposal that will remove four sports from the Division III emerging-sports list.

The Presidents Council also agreed it will ask the membership to refer Proposal No. 12 to the Management Council for further study of the end date of nontraditional seasons in both the fall and spring semesters.