Campus Athletics Governance, the Faculty Role:
Principles, Proposed Rules, and Guidelines
Adopted by vote of
the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics membership,
as a statement on governance issues pertaining to schools in NCAA Division IA
Responsible, well coordinated governance of athletics at the campus level is of central concern to the NCAA and its member institutions. The day to day operation of athletics programs is the responsibility of athletics directors and coaches. A century of experience has shown that many strong forces from both within and outside of athletics departments make athletics governance uniquely difficult in a university setting. For this reason, the engagement in athletics governance of the three major participants in campus governance, the administration, the governing board, and the faculty, is essential to the effective management of athletics. In this regard, presidents must take a leading executive role, governing boards must provide oversight and support in accord with their ultimate responsibility for the institution, and faculty must engage their academic perspective to help ensure that the institutional investment in athletics remains in the interest of the primary academic mission of the institution. All three participants in campus governance must work in coordination to support athletics directors and coaches in ensuring the proper role of athletics on campus.
This document focuses on the faculty role in campus athletics governance. It articulates a set of principles, proposes a set of uniform rules, and discusses in detail guidelines that, when adapted and applied by individual campuses, can help ensure the proper function of this faculty role. In focusing on the faculty role, this document assumes the leading role of campus presidents, the ultimate authority of the institutional governing board, and practical centrality of athletics directors and coaches.
The faculty role in campus athletics governance is generally exercised through three different organs: the Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR), the Campus Athletics Board (CAB), and the Faculty Governance Body (FGB), the last of which refers to the elected representative council of faculty that legislates all campus-level governance matters assigned to the campus faculty, often called the “Faculty Senate.” This document is concerned with the nature and function of the FAR and CAB, and with those activities of the FGB that bear on athletics governance.
The basic premise of this document is that all three faculty entities must be well configured to work together in order for the faculty to exercise its proper role in campus athletics governance. It discusses, in sequence: 1) the nature and role of the FAR; 2) the nature and role of the CAB; 3) the role of the FGB.
Structures and traditions of athletics governance at schools vary. This document recognizes this fact and stresses the need to adapt its guidelines to local circumstances. Detailed guidelines are not meant to be prescriptive for all campuses; they are included because this document is intended as a resource that campuses can consult when assessing whether their athletics governance structures are satisfactory or could be improved. Local faculty are best able to design governance structures for their campuses, but that all schools are helped when successful ideas are shared. However, the specific forms listed here represent more than an inventory of successful approaches – they are recommended as best practices, and the purpose of this document is to help campuses strengthen athletics governance.
Our understanding of governance issues and best practices is not static, and this document should not be seen as an exhaustive and unchanging blueprint. It will be subject to revision in future iterations as new circumstances and new knowledge arise.
1. The Nature and Role of the Faculty Athletics
Representative
The NCAA
Constitution requires that all member institutions designate a Faculty
Athletics Representative. This individual must have faculty rank and not
hold either an administrative or coaching position in the athletics
department. It is suggested that the FAR play a central role in the
overall checks and balances system designed to insure academic integrity, sound
governance and commitment to rules compliance, attention to equity, and athlete
welfare.
Some duties related
to these functions are stipulated in the NCAA bylaws. Others are left to
the discretion of each institution or the individual who occupies the position.
Both mandated and optional duties are listed in The Faculty Athletics
Representative Handbook (referred to below as the Handbook).
The Faculty Athletics Representative: A
Survey of the Membership further itemizes FAR duties under the
categories of: a) academics, b) compliance and rules interpretation, c) student-athlete
welfare, and d) administration.
The overall success
in performing these functions varies considerably from campus to campus.
At some institutions, the FAR enjoys a considerable amount of visibility and
influence. At others, the position carries less prominence and
clout. Even at schools where a long history of support for the FAR
exists, some parts of the job may go well while others languish.
Given this
variability in the role of FAR and inherent difficulties in executing all parts
of the job well, the following guidelines have been developed. They are
designed to provide principles and strategies for strengthening the FAR
position and thereby increasing faculty voice in overseeing intercollegiate
athletics.
1.A Principles of the
FAR Position
Certain values or
principles inform this outline of the FAR position. Five of them are
identified here.
1. Independence/integrity. The FAR is part of the checks and balances
system for administering and overseeing intercollegiate athletics. While
the FAR is in nearly all cases appointed by the President, he or she is
expected to provide a perspective on intercollegiate athletics issues that
reflects the institution’s faculty experience, and that is a component of the
faculty’s engagement in campus athletics governance. Both the appearance
and the reality of this faculty perspective must be maintained. This
leads to a number of policies and practices that are designed to provide some
distance between the FAR and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics.
This principle is implicit in the NCAA constitutional requirement that
2. Stature/visibility. According to the Handbook, the FAR is
to enjoy a degree of visibility and stature “beyond the level of a
typical service appointment.” Both of these factors—the stature and the
visibility—should allow the FAR to perform duties with greater
effectiveness. Any number of policies and practices can both symbolically
and concretely elevate the position. For
instance, the amount of fiscal support provided, the method by which searches
for the position are conducted, and the degree of FAR access to the President affect stature and visibility.
3.
Communication. The FAR works at a
crossroads where the interests of athletes, the athletics department, the
conference, the NCAA, the faculty and administration, and other interest groups
need to be heard.
Policies and procedures that ensure clear and regular communication between the
FAR and FGBs, CABs, the academic advising center for
athletes, and student body and athlete leaderships are needed.
4.
Influence. The FAR must carry out duties that promote
the integrity of the intercollegiate athletics program at his or her
institution. To do so, this individual must be involved in the internal
workings of athletics—from administration to compliance, from eligibility to
student welfare. Consequently, policies and procedures are needed that
place the FAR in a position to know, advise, and act. A clear job
description that spells out FAR responsibilities and mandated membership on key
committees is essential in this regard.
5. Uncertainty/fluidity. The position of FAR is not fixed once and
for all. Intercollegiate athletics itself is in a period of dynamism, and
the role of FAR can be expected to change as well. Consequently, policies
and procedures for
1.B
Recommendations for Uniform Rules
Although there is great variety among institutions, there are certain features that experience indicates are so characteristic of successful FAR function that this document recommends them as uniform rules (with provisions for certain exceptional cases), which the NCAA should adopt as bylaws.
n The appointment of the Faculty Athletics Representative shall be made by the President; the process of appointment shall involve meaningful consultation with the elected body that exercises campus-level faculty governance; the appointment shall be made for a specified term; a review of the performance of the Faculty Athletics Representative that includes meaningful participation by the elected faculty governance body shall take place prior to any reappointment. If no elected faculty governance body exists on a campus, the campus athletics board shall be the consulting body.
1.C
Guidelines for Campus Consultation and Adaptation
The guidelines are
designed to provide a method for quickly and efficiently checking the strength
of the local FAR position. They are not meant to be
comprehensive. It is not expected that each guideline will be applicable
to every institution. Different histories, administrative structures,
institutional missions, and personnel at each school affect what will
work. The practices described below are utilized at many colleges and
universities where
Those provisions
that are included above in recommended uniform rules are not listed below as
guidelines; however, until such rules are adopted, they should be interpreted
as recommended guidelines.
Guidelines Concerning the FAR Position
1. The position is defined by a written job
description, which has been reviewed and approved by the President, in
consultation with the CAB, FGB, and Athletics Director.
2. The position is comprehensive (see sample job
descriptions on the FARA website, and in Appendix B of
the Handbook).
3. The position carries financial support
consistent with the job description. (This may include a stipend and/or
release time for the FAR, clerical assistance, travel and other support.) This financial support comes from the general
budget or other non-athletic source; it cannot come from the athletics
department or athletics-based accounts.
4. Announcement of an appointment process to the
CAB and FGB precedes nominations; appointment is made from nominations lists
provided by the CAB and FGB.
5. The
position includes membership on committees or other governance bodies that
facilitate communication with such constituencies as: faculty governance; the athletic
governance board; the athletic administration; athletes.
6. The
position entails regular access to the President or Chancellor of the
institution or campus.
Note: This document does not advocate term limits
for FARs, favoring instead an NCAA bylaw mandating meaningful review
procedures, involving faculty governance participation, prior to FAR
reappointment, in order to ensure the independence and effectiveness of
FARs. A bylaw mandating annual reports
of faculty governance leaders to the NCAA concerning the faculty role in
athletics governance will create an opportunity to confirm the integrity of
reappointments.
Guidelines Concerning FAR Individuals
1. The FAR is a senior member of the faculty,
preferably at the rank of full professor or senior librarian, and at
tenure-granting institutions must be tenured.
2. The FAR has
experience in faculty leadership prior to accepting the position of FAR.
3. The FAR has a campus reputation in a role
unrelated to intercollegiate athletics, such as excellence in teaching,
research, or prior administration, in order to enhance the visibility and
effectiveness of the position.
4. The FAR operates from an office that is
located outside both the department of intercollegiate athletics and the
academic athlete advisement center.
5. The FAR must avoid both the reality and
appearance of any conflict of interest, particularly in relationship to
accepting perks or other fringe benefits.
Guidelines Concerning FAR Functions
-- Related to Athletes
1. The FAR meets with the Student-Athlete Advisory
Committee (SAAC).
2. The FAR attends start-of-season and other
special events.
3. The FAR participates in exit interviews.
4. The FAR attends a wide spectrum of athletic events across campus.
5. The FAR ensures that all procedures and roles
related to student eligibility are fulfilled (see the Handbook).
6. The FAR is available to meet with athletes on
an individual basis.
7.
The FAR promotes academic excellence and coordinates
nominations of athletes for such awards as the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship.
-- Related to Faculty
8. The FAR reports regularly to the FGB.
9. The FAR provides substantive information to
the faculty on such matters as graduation rates for athletes, admissions
statistics including any special admits for athletes.
10. The FAR sits on the CAB.
-- Related to Administrators
11. The FAR meets regularly with and reports to the
President.
12. The FAR meets regularly with the Athletics
Director.
13. The FAR meets regularly with others, such as
(depending on individual campus structures):
a. The head of the athletics academic advising
center
b. The
advisor for the SAAC
c. The
Compliance Coordinator
d. The
Director of Admissions
e. The
Director of Financial Aid
f. The Director of Athletics Fundraising
g. The Head of
alumni support groups
14. The FAR holds conversations with
administrators related to institutional control, academic integrity, budget,
NCAA legislation, and so forth.
15. The FAR sits on search committees for
athletic administrators and head coaches.
16. The FAR serves as a leader or committee
member for NCAA Athletic Certification.
--Related to Conferences & NCAA
Note: Since the NCAA governance
reorganization in 1998, much legislation is now shaped by conference
commissioners and by college and university Presidents who sit on the Board of
Governors. Input from
17. The FAR serves on conference and/or NCAA
committees.
18. The FAR meets regularly with conference
19. The FAR holds local conversations on
institutional position for conference and NCAA legislation.
20. The FAR exercises authority (vis a vis
conference bylaws) on matters delegated to
2. The Nature and Role of the Campus Athletics
Board
Athletics boards, along with the Faculty Athletics Representative, are supposed to play an important role in the overall checks and balances system designed to ensure academic integrity and athletics rules compliance. This intent is made clear by board membership requirements established by the NCAA. According to Article 6 of the Constitution, each athletics board must include “at least a majority” of full-time academic administrators and regular faculty. Where parliamentary procedures require more than a simple majority to enact policies, faculty and administrators “shall be of sufficient number to constitute at least that majority.” Some conferences stipulate faculty majorities for CABs, which better ensures that faculty can fulfill their governance role.
Such guidelines help to keep the operation of intercollegiate athletics in line with the central educational mission of each campus. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of athletic boards varies considerably from campus to campus. Some provide a strong counterweight to the economic pressures on athletics. Others seem unable or unwilling to enact and enforce academic policies that would assure, for example, sound admissions decisions for athletes and standards for academic progress that are consistent with regulations used for the rest of the student body.
Boards typically have both advisory and legislative functions. Depending on the blend of these responsibilities and the specific duties that have been delegated to them by the President of the institution, boards may play central and highly influential roles in athletic governance. They establish policy, monitor compliance, and promote a strong academic climate for athletics—always with the understanding that the President has final responsibility and authority for intercollegiate athletics.
2.A Principles of Campus
Athletics Boards
1. Independence/integrity. The athletics governance board is part of the checks and balances system for administering and overseeing the intercollegiate program. It is essential that, both in appearance and in fact, members of the board have the best interests of the core academic mission of the institution at heart. This implies the need for policies that provide some distance between athletics and the operations of the board, and that stipulate a majority of board members be academic administrators or faculty members. It also underlies the recommendation that individuals of academic and/or administrative stature and integrity be selected for the board, and that the campus-wide FGB contributes to decisions on who serves in this capacity.
2. Consistency. If a single guideline were given for athletic governance boards it might be this: Academic policies and standards for athletes should be consistent with the regulations that apply to the student body at large. This leads to a number of guidelines that affect the functions of athletics boards. For instance, guidelines for establishing policies on admissions, normal progress, grade point average requirements and the like stem from this principle.
3. Sunshine. Sunshine informs and enlightens but it also exposes. The ethical concept on which this principle is grounded is broadly accepted: always act in ways that you would be willing, in principle, to make public.
4. Integration. If faculty are to take a more active role in monitoring intercollegiate athletes, they must be connected to athletics operations in some way. One connection is provided by regular and effective communication, including an open, two-way flow of information. Athletics will not be integrated into the larger campus community so long as members of that community do not know what is going on in that program. But it is also important that the athletics board not be isolated from other elements of faculty governance.
5. Uncertainty/fluidity. Higher education and the intercollegiate athletics programs within it are both undergoing change. Thirty years ago, many athletics units were housed in physical education or other departments and most coaches were on academic appointments. Today, in most institutions, athletics resides (administratively and, often too, culturally) outside the academic mainstream, and few if any coaches hold academic rank. Faculty governance of athletics must change as the institutional landscape for intercollegiate sports continues to evolve.
2.B
Recommendations for Uniform Rules
Again, great variety among institutions limits the extent to which uniform rules will ideally serve the interests of campuses; however, certain minimal standards can be designed.
n All NCAA member institutions shall have campus Campus Athletics Boards. A majority of Board members shall be faculty and academic administrators. The appointment of the faculty representatives to the Board shall be made through a process of election by the campus-level faculty-governance body, or by the President through a process involving meaningful consultation with the faculty governance body, unless no such body exists. Appointments shall be made for a specified term.
n The Faculty Athletics Representative shall sit as an ex officio voting or non-voting member of the Board.
2.C
Guidelines for Campus Consultation and Adaptation
The guidelines are intended to allow an institution to check its athletics governance board structure and function in an efficient way. It is not designed to provide a comprehensive look at all potentially useful practices. Readers will need to review the recommendations critically to determine which ones may be helpful for their institution or their particular circumstances.
As was the case with the guidelines for FARs, different institutional traditions, personnel, missions, academic standards, league affiliations, and the like will influence what will work and what will not. In general, however, it is suggested that the specific guidelines provided below reflect sound educational values and principles that are shared by all institutions.
Those provisions
that are included above in recommended uniform rules are not listed below as
guidelines; however, until such rules are adopted, they should be interpreted
as recommended guidelines.
Board Charge and Composition
1. The Board has clearly established functions and responsibilities that are acknowledged by the president of the institution.
2. The Board has both advisory and legislative functions.
3. The Board has legislative functions, either delegated by FGB policy or exercised in tandem with the FGB, that have a substantial effect on academic integrity. These may include the following: admissions policies, standards for normal progress and good academic standing (GPA), and limits for missed class time for competition.
4. The Board includes faculty and academic administrators who are highly respected by peers for their research, teaching, service, or administrative work outside intercollegiate athletics.
5. The Board includes the Athletics Director.
6. Other athletically-related personnel (e.g., Senior Woman Administrator, Director of Admissions, the head of the athlete advisement center) participate in Board meetings as staff.
7. The Board includes student representation.
8. The Board includes alumni representation.
9. The Board has a specified relationship to the Faculty Governance Body. This relationship may be established in one or more of the following ways, listed (in general) from weaker to stronger connections:
· A member of the board is designated as the official liaison to the FGB.
· A specified number of board members must also be members of the FGB.
· A specified number of board members are appointed or elected by the FGB.
· The Board is required to send all legislation that affects the academic well-being of athletes through the FGB.
· The Board is required to provide regular informational reports to the FGB, minimally on an annual basis
· The Board is a standing subcommittee of the FGB.
Board Functions
10. The Board reviews data on admissions decisions, including progress and graduation success rates by admission category.
11. The Board promotes admissions policies that are consistent with admissions policies outside intercollegiate athletics.
12. The Board participates in the review of appeals of the denial of scholarships for continuing athletes.
13 The Board reviews data on normal progress and grade point averages and reports its findings to the FGB.
14. The Board, by FGB policy or in tandem with the FGB, establishes policy for normal progress and grade point average that meets minimal NCAA and any conference requirements.
15. The Board, by FGB policy or in tandem with the FGB, establishes policy for normal progress and grade point average that exceeds NCAA and conference requirements, where this is consistent with the institution’s standards for other students.
16. The Board reviews information on all athletic schedules and reports its judgment to the FGB.
17. The Board
establishes a confidential personnel subcommittee of faculty and academic
administrators, which may also have an alumni or student member, that participates
and advises in searches and major personnel decisions concerning athletics
directors and head coaches; the full CAB should play a role in searches.
18. The Board, by FGB policy or in tandem with the FGB, guides athletics program decisions by establishing policy for excused absences and maximum amount of missed class time for athletic competition.
19. The Board reviews certification of the academic eligibility of students on athletic grants-in-aid.
20. The Board reviews major requests for waiver of any institutional athletics policies.
21. The Board delegates responsibilities for review of minor requests for waiver of institutional athletics policies to the Faculty Athletics Representative.
22. The Board develops a method to determine needs, interests, and concerns of athletes.
23. The Board reports activities, on at least an annual basis, to the FGB.
Board
Communications and Accountability
24. The Board communicates information beyond won-loss records (and other athletic achievements) to the broader campus community and specifically to the FGB, including information on graduation rates and continuing eligibility performance, by sport.
25. The Board is empowered to gather information from sources within and outside the Athletics Department, and shares information, within boundaries established by institutional policy and Federal regulations, on such matters as the following:
--the number of Presidential or special admits
--a comparison of the number special admits for athletes and similar admissions for other reasons (e.g., unusual musical talents)
--an analysis of the academic success (including graduate rate and continuing eligibility performance) for all special admits in comparison to other athletes and the entire student body
--a longitudinal analysis of student athlete graduation rates in comparison to the entire student body
--information on the grade point averages of athletes in comparison to the entire student body
--information on the distribution of majors selected by athletes in comparison to the entire student body
--information on academic honors (e.g., academic All-America) won by athletes
26. The Board coordinates informational reports to the FGB, given by the Chair of the Board and/or the Faculty Athletics Representative.
27. The Board encourages informational reports to the FGB by the Director of Athletics
3. The Role of the Faculty Governance Body
At many schools, low faculty interest in athletics governance issues has led to minimal or no involvement of FGBs in athletics governance; at others, higher faculty interest has combined with an absence of structure for faculty involvement, and created tension between faculty and administration. Maintaining adequate FGB attentiveness to athletics affairs can add great strength to campus athletics governance. Faculty have a unique focus on the institution’s academic mission and are relatively free from the types of pressures that may create discrepancies between athletics decision making and academic priorities and values. It is in the interests of campuses, and of the NCAA as a consortium of schools, that faculty, through their FGBs, fulfill basic responsibilities in athletics governance.
Efficient exercise of faculty responsibilities requires
structures that will encourage and make it feasible for faculty to be
adequately informed about athletics administration to fulfill its governance
responsibilities. The most effective way
to ensure this is through FGB involvement in the appointment and review of
3.A
Recommendations for Uniform Rules
We recommend that a method be created that will allow the NCAA, perhaps through the review of a subcommittee of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association, to receive confirmation that campus faculties have contributed to campus athletics governance, and that a bylaw of the following form be considered:
n Each year the NCAA shall request from faculty leaders of campus Faculty Governance Bodies confirmation that the faculty has been able to fulfill its responsibilities in regard to athletics governance, or specification of the obstacles that have prevented it from doing so, unless no such body exists.
3.B
Guidelines for Campus Consultation and Adaptation
The primary recommendations for FGB fulfillment of its
athletics-related responsibilities are entailed in the guidelines for
Note that the following roles for the FGB have been specified earlier in the form of recommended uniform rules.
1. The FGB is
consulted in the appointment and review of
2. The FGB is consulted in the appointment of faculty positions on the CAB.
In addition, the following guidelines are recommended, to be consulted and adapted by individual campuses according to specific campus conditions:
Concerning
3. Public announcements of FAR searches solicit statements of interest from individuals, to be submitted to a committee of the FGB, which forwards a stipulated number of nominees to the President; the President selects the appointee from among the names forwarded by the committee.
4. The FGB participates in the policy decisions
concerning term lengths for
5. The FGB participates in the campus delineation of FAR responsibilities.
6. The FGB periodically receives information
from the FAR, specifying such matters as graduation rates for athletes and admissions statistics,
including any special admits for athletes.
7. The FGB schedules a presentation on the
status of campus and conference intercollegiate athletics matters by the FAR at
least once each year. The presentation
may be made together with the chair of the CAB.
Concerning CABs
8. The FGB elects members to the CAB or nominates a stipulated number of individuals for appointment to each faculty position on the CAB, from among which the President selects appointees.
9. The FGB participates in or is responsible for developing the policies that govern the CAB.
10. The FGB schedules
a presentation on the status of campus intercollegiate athletics programs by
the chair of the CAB at least once each year.
The presentation may be made together with the FAR.
11. The faculty chair or president of the FGB consults regularly with the FAR and chair of the CAB to learn of issues that may be of concern to the faculty.
Concerning the President
12. The faculty leader of the FGB consults at least annually with the President concerning the success of the faculty in fulfilling its athletics governance responsibilities.