Framing the Future:

Reforming Intercollegiate Athletics

The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA)

http://www.neuro.uoregon.edu/~tublitz/COIA/index.html  

Adopted on 15 June 2007 by vote of the Coalition membership

Full Text (PDF or HTML)             Summary (PDF or HTML)                List of Proposals (PDF or HTML)

APPENDIX A: LIST OF PROPOSALS

1.1       Institutional Admission and Recruiting Policies

1.1.1          Student-athletes should be admitted based on their potential for academic success and not primarily on their athletic contribution to the institution. General admissions policies should be the same for all students, student-athletes and non-student-athletes. Campus administrators and campus faculty governance bodies should work together to develop admission policies consistent with the educational mission of the institution. [COIA 2005 Report to NCAA Presidential Task Force Section VIII recommendations 1-3 & goal 2; local and national (NCAA certification)]

1.1.2     The academic profiles of freshmen or transfer student-athletes as a group and by sport should be similar to those of the entering freshman class or the non-athlete transfer cohort, as applicable. Data on the academic profiles of entering student-athletes and non-student-athletes should be reviewed at least annually by the Campus Athletics Board or the campus faculty governance body. [COIA 2005 Report to NCAA Presidential Task Force section VIII recommendations 1-3 & goal 2; local and national (NCAA certification)]

1.1.3     Special admissions of freshman and transfer student-athletes should reflect the same philosophy as special admissions of non-student-athletes. Data on the academic performance of student-athlete special admits should be reviewed at least annually by the Campus Athletic Board or the campus faculty governance body.  [New; local and national (NCAA certification]

1.1.4     Faculty should be involved in developing and overseeing campus policies regarding recruiting of student athletes. [New; local and national (NCAA certification)]

1.2       The Primacy of Academics

1.2.1     No academic programs or majors should be designed specifically for student-athletes or created for the purpose of allowing student-athletes to maintain their eligibility. Qualified student-athletes should be allowed and in fact encouraged to pursue the major of their choice and to have the same access to academic classes and programs as other students without explicit or implicit athletic consequences. Data on student-athletes’ choice of major should be gathered and evaluated by the campus faculty governance body or the Campus Athletic Board and should also be provided to all prospective recruits. [New; local and national (NCAA certification)]

1.2.2          To preserve academic integrity, the campus faculty governance body or the Campus Athletic Board should monitor student-athlete enrollment by course. [COIA 2005 Academic Integrity in Intercollegiate Athletics section 3.1; local and national (NCAA certification)]

1.2.3          Academic Progress Rate (APR), Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and other available graduation rate data should be reviewed annually by the campus faculty governance body to sustain processes that will improve the academic success and graduation rates of student-athletes.  [New; local and national (NCAA certification)]

1.2.4          The NCAA should continue to enforce rigorously contemporaneous and historical penalties for teams and institutions that fail to meet NCAA APR and GSR standards. [New; national (enforcement of existing NCAA legislation)]

1.2.5          To ensure that student-athletes are acquiring the educational foundation leading to a degree, athletic eligibility shall be dependent on the maintenance of a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale. [New; local, conferences and national (NCAA legislation)]

2.1       Athletics Scholarships

2.1.1     Athletics scholarships should be awarded on a year-by-year basis with the presumption that they should be renewed up to four times for a total award of five years, or until graduation, whichever comes first, for students who are in good academic standing, conform to campus codes for student behavior, conform to the athletics department’s standards of conduct, and adhere to team rules.  Institutions should establish criteria and a mechanism for revoking a scholarship.  The final authority for revoking a scholarship should rest with the campus’ chief financial aid officer or with the chief academic officer.  A student awarded an athletics scholarship who is no longer participating in athletics should be counted against the NCAA maximum number of awards for that sport, unless the scholarship is revoked or unless the student has exhausted athletic eligibility. [COIA 2005 Academic Integrity in Intercollegiate Athletics section 2.1; local and national (NCAA legislation)]

2.2       Competition and Practice Scheduling

2.2.1          Individual athletic competitions, as distinct from conference, regional and national tournaments and championships, shall not be scheduled during final exam periods unless an exception is granted by the Campus Athletics Board or equivalent. [COIA 2005 Academic Integrity in Intercollegiate Athletics section 4.3.6; local, conferences, and national (NCAA legislation)]

2.2.2          Individual athletic competitions and associated travel should be scheduled to minimize lost class time. Institutional policies designed to minimize lost class time should be described.  [COIA 2005 Academic Integrity in Intercollegiate Athletics section 4.3; local, conferences, and national (NCAA certification)]

2.2.3          Athletically-related activities (e.g., formal and informal practices, team meetings, and any activities at which the attendance of student-athletes is required) should be scheduled outside the prime times for academic classes. Each institution should explain how it achieves this scheduling goal. [New; local, conferences and national (NCAA certification)]

2.3       Integration into Campus Life

2.3.1     Life skills and personal development programs for student-athletes should have as a goal the integration of the student-athlete into the rest of the student population. These programs should help student-athletes develop an appropriate balance between their athletic time requirements and their paramount need for academic and social integration.  Administrators, faculty and athletic departments should mitigate the time demand on student-athletes to allow them to pursue the full range of educational experiences open to other students. [COIA 2005 Report to NCAA Presidential Task Force section VII recommendation 2b & 2e; local, conferences, and national (NCAA certification)]

2.4       Campus Integration of Academic Advising for Student-Athletes

2.4.1     Academic advising and academic support for student-athletes should be structured to give student-athletes as valuable and meaningful an educational experience as possible and not just to maintain their athletic eligibility. [COIA 2005 Report to NCAA Presidential Task Force section VII recommendation 2c; local, conferences, and national (NCAA certification)]

2.4.2     The academic advising facility for student-athletes should be integrated into and report through the existing academic advising structure and not through the Athletics Department. [COIA 2003 Framework for Comprehensive Athletics Reform section I.4; local and national (NCAA certification)]

2.4.3     The campus academic advising structure or the office of the chief academic officer should have oversight of and regularly review the academic advising of student-athletes. [COIA 2003 Framework for Comprehensive Athletics Reform section I.4; local and national (NCAA certification)]

2.4.4     Athletic academic advisors should be appointed by and work for the campus academic advising structure and not solely for the Athletics Department. [COIA 2003 Framework for Comprehensive Athletics Reform section I.4; local and national (NCAA certification)]

3.         Campus Governance of Intercollegiate Athletics

3.1     Each NCAA member institution should establish a Campus Athletic Board. The charge of this Board should be to monitor and oversee campus intercollegiate athletics. A majority of Board members should be tenured faculty who should be appointed or elected through rules established by the campus faculty governance body.  The Faculty Athletic Representative should be an ex officio voting or non-voting member of the Board. The chair of the Board should be a senior (tenured) faculty member. An Athletic Director should not be chair. [COIA 2004 Campus Athletics Governance - the Faculty Role section 2B; local and national (NCAA legislation)]

3.2     Major athletic department decisions (e.g., hiring of the athletic director and key athletic department personnel, changes in the total number of intercollegiate sports, initiation of major capital projects, etc.) should be made in consultation with the Campus Athletic Board and leaders of the campus faculty governance body and appropriate faculty committee(s). [COIA 2005 Report to NCAA Presidential Task Force section VII recommendation 1b; local and national (NCAA certification)]

3.3     The Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) should be appointed by the University President based on recommendation by the campus faculty governance body. The FAR appointment should be made for a specific term and a review of the performance of the FAR should take place prior to reappointment. Such a review should include meaningful participation by the campus faculty governance body, or the Campus Athletic Board. [COIA 2004 Campus Athletics Governance - the Faculty Role section 1B; local and national (NCAA certification)]

3.4     The Athletic Director, Faculty Athletic Representative and the Campus Athletic Board chair should report orally and in writing at least once a year to the campus faculty governance body. Their reports should include a focus on academic benchmarks including the APR, GSR, graduation rates and the percentage and progress of student athlete special admits. [COIA 2005 Report to NCAA Presidential Task Force section VII recommendation 1c; local, conferences and national (NCAA certification)]

3.5     Leaders of campus faculty governance body should report annually to the University President (1) that the faculty has been able to fulfill its responsibilities in regard to athletic governance, or (2) that it has not, in which case the report should specify the obstacles that have prevented it from doing so. These reports should be made available to the NCAA during re-certification [COIA 2004 Campus Athletics Governance - the Faculty Role section 3A; local and national (NCAA certification)]

4.         Fiscal Responsibility

4.1     The Athletic Department’s budgets, revenues and expenditures should be transparent and aligned with the mission, goals and values of the institution.  The University President should take the lead to ensure that fiscal reports, including dash board indicators as listed in the 2006 NCAA Presidential Task Force report, are issued annually and made available to the campus faculty governance body. The President should work closely with faculty leaders, existing faculty committees, and athletic department personnel to achieve these goals. [COIA 2005 report to NCAA Presidential Task Force section I; local, conferences and national (NCAA certification)]

4.2     The overall annual growth rate in the Athletic Department’s operating expenditures should be no greater than the overall annual growth rate in the university’s operating expenditures. [New; local, conferences and national (NCAA certification)]

4.3     The athletic department budget should be integrated into the university general budget process where feasible. The proposed athletic department budget should be evaluated by the same process as the budget for academic units. [COIA 2005 report to NCAA Presidential Task Force section I; local and national (NCAA certification)]

4.4     The University President should take the appropriate steps to fuse athletic fundraising efforts into those of the rest of the university, including eliminating separate, athletic-only 501(c)(3) entities and  establishing faculty representation on the board of the institutional fund-raising entity [New; local and national (NCAA certification)]

4.5     Commercialization policies in athletics should be comparable to other commercialization policies conducted throughout the University and should include meaningful faculty participation in their oversight. [New; local and national (NCAA certification)]