National Meeting – 2015

Report to the Membership 

2014-15 Steering Committee of the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics 

April 2015 

The Context of College Sports, 2014-15 

NCAA governance restructuring: The past (2014) year’s most significant event was the discussion and  passage of a controversial plan to restructure NCAA Division 1; featuring the creation of a set of “Power 5” conferences which will have the ability, within a delimited range, to fashion their own operating  rules. Under the new rules, the Power-5 conferences will have the ability to spend the additional  monies they want on their student-athletes, including paying what they call (but has yet to be defined) “full cost of attendance scholarships” to their athletes. This change represents the official end of the  NCAA’s previous standard of competitive equity. The remaining D1 conferences will now face the option  to adopt policies and rules set by the wealthier conferences, or face the difficult decision to try to live  within their economic means at some competitive disadvantage. 

It should be noted that COIA, alone among the faculty groups, opposed the NCAA’s restructuring plan, conducting a campaign that ultimately asked each of the D1 university presidents to consider calling for  a full-membership vote to override to the plan as passed by the D1 Board of Directors. That effort,  described in more detail below, failed, as reportedly only 25 of the needed number of 75 D1 presidents  elected to call for a vote to override the Board’s decision. 

Legal issues: 2014 also saw increased legal pressures on intercollegiate athletics on three arenas, the  first being the O’Bannon case, a lawsuit based on the principle that college athletes have the right to  share in the revenues that universities and other businesses earn from media contracts, ticket sales,  

athletics apparel sales, among other revenue streams. The initial ruling on O’Bannon came close to  discarding entirely the NCAA’s assertion that college revenue sports must accord with standards of  amateurism. However, noting that amateur standards for student who compete as athletes could have a  positive effect on the quality of education school-wide, the ruling chose to retain an amateur standard  by limiting the amounts revenue sports athletes could earn from the revenue streams under litigation to  a total amount consistent with current levels available to Pell Grant recipients, and deferring payments  until after graduation. The judgment was considered a victory for the plaintiffs, and a ruling on an  appeal of the decision by the NCAA is expected sometime in the summer of 2015. 

A second source of legal pressure comes from the attempt to unionize the football players at  Northwestern University. In early 2014, a National Labor Relations Board regional director ruled that  intercollegiate football players were, in effect, providing services for hire, and that under Federal law  they were entitled to unionize. That case is now under appeal to the full NLRB by the university, and the  results of the voting of the players on the unionization issue has been impounded until the NLRB rules  on the matter later in 2015.

The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics is an alliance of faculty governance bodies from the  academic institutions in the Football Bowl Subdivision. COIA’s mission is to promote the academic integrity  of our universities, and to represent the interests of our faculties, non-athlete students and student athletes in matters related to college sports that can significantly affect the health, sustainability and  educational missions of our institutions. 

https://sites.comm.psu.edu/thecoia/ 

The third legal challenge is that brought by sports labor attorney Jeffrey Kessler. The most direct  challenge yet to the NCAA’s “student-athlete” model, the lawsuit, invoking anti-trust laws, names the  NCAA and the five largest conferences (the Southeastern, Big Ten, Pacific-12, Atlantic Coast and Big 12)  as defendants and effectively asks for an end to NCAA-style amateurism. Filed in federal court on behalf  of several college athletes (football and basketball), the suit argues that the NCAA has unlawfully capped  player compensation at the value of an athletic scholarship. The Kessler suit does not ask for “the full cost-of-attendance” that many universities are now planning on trying to pay athletes, and does not ask  for specific monetary damages. Instead, the suit argues that no upper limit on compensation is legal in a  free market and asked the judge to issue an injunction against the NCAA, ending the practice. The suit  also contends that universities are acting as a cartel by fixing the scholarship amounts paid to athletes,  who, it is argued, would undoubtedly receive offers well in excess of tuition, room, board and books if  not limited by NCAA rules. 

All three of these legal issues have the potential to fundamentally change intercollegiate athletics in the  direction of increased commercialization and professionalization, which is likely to force the elimination  of many Olympic sports programs in order to allow revenue sports to retain income needed to  compensate athletes. Ironically, then, student-athletes who generally best demonstrate the positive  synergy of athletics and academics that is the rationale for college sports, are expected to lose  participation opportunities in order to meet equity demands of student-athletes in the more  academically problematic revenue sports. 

As a result of both the NCAA’s restructuring, and the current legal environment, in an ominous sign of  things to come, Big 12 President Bob Bowlsby was quoted at the BIG 12 media days (7/22/2014) “You’re  going to hate it going forward. There’s a lot of change coming. … I think that all of that (lawsuits) will  cause programs to be eliminated. I think you’ll see men’s Olympic sports go away as a result of the new  funding challenges coming down the pike. I think there may be tensions among and between sports on  campus and institutions that have different resources”. 

Faculty voice: The past year was also a tough year for faculty voice in NCAA matters, as the results of the  restructuring are serving to further marginalize faculty influence. Although for the first time the two,  presidentially appointed, faculty athletics representative groups (the D1 FARs and FARA) were each  granted one seat on the NCAA Board of Directors (there are now 24 board members), within the NCAA  Governance Council, which is now the highest D1 legislative body, faculty membership was limited to a  negligible share in a Council thoroughly dominated by athletics directors and conference executives.  COIA, the D1 FARs and FARA are united in the view that the faculty voice, and the academic perspective, in the overall governance structure is now minimal and has effectively been marginalized. In addition,  the important NCAA Governance Council, responsible for high-level policy decisions and  recommendations, is now heavily dominated by athletics directors and conference executives. As COIA  has argued throughout the past year, despite claims by leadership at the NCAA and conferences to the  contrary, the academic perspective in NCAA decision-making appears to have been severely, and  conspicuously, relegated to insignificance within the new governance structure. This creates a  heightened threat in the area of academic integrity, one that will require our campuses to monitor  academic issues in intercollegiate athletics with heightened vigilance.

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COIA in 2014-15 

COIA’s activities over the past year have been focused on the NCAA D1 restructuring process and its  aftermath, and continued to reflect the approach the Coalition laid out in 2013, when COIA was first  asked to be participant in the process (along with the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics,  one of only two non-NCAA groups invited to participate. COIA submitted a solicited set of  recommendations in the Fall of 2013, and COIA Chair Mike Bowen joined the initial advisory session  called for all participating groups in October 2013. Having advocated for increased faculty engagement  at the campus and conference levels in response to early drafts of the NCAA’s restructuring plan, COIA  Chair Mike Bowen and Steering Committee member Bob Eno participated in an Association-wide “Town Hall” advisory session on the plan, held at the NCAA’s National Convention in January 2014, where they continued to advocate for increased faculty engagement at the campus and conference levels. (A copy of Eno’s report on that meeting is attached.) Of note, at the meeting, when Bowen and Eno asked the  D1 Board, in one of the open sessions, “How would the creation of a set of so-called “Power-5”  conferences help the NCAA achieve its stated mission?” the question was ignored. 

COIA Chair Mike Bowen, by invitation, also attended the Knight Commission Meeting in Miami, FL,  March 17, 2014, where the NCAA’s restructuring plans were discussed by NCAA D1 Board Chair and  Wake Forest University President Nathan Hatch, Big 12 Conference President Bob Bowlsby, Knight  Commission Executive Director Amy Perko; and others. At that meeting it became increasingly clear  that the NCAA’s restructuring plan would include the creation of a “Power-5” set of conferences, thus  separating them from the “less-resourced” conferences. Bob Bowlsby in fact suggested that universities  in the less-resourced conferences would simply have to scale back their expectations and learn to live  within their means, and that the results of the creation of the “Power-5” wouldn’t matter all that much  competitively because those conferences already win the vast majority of the national championships. 

As the NCAA made its plan clearer and continued to solicit feedback, and in light of the progress of the  O’Bannon and Kessler lawsuits and Northwestern University football team’s request to unionize in the  courts, COIA sent a letter to all Division 1 Presidents to support the importance of academics in any new  governance structure, and the inclusion of a significant number of faculty athletics representatives on  the D1 Board of Directors and governance councils (copy of the letter attached). With the resulting vote  of the Division 1 Board on August 8, 2014, passing the plan, the COIA Steering Committee issued a  statement on the restructuring (letter September 20, 2014) expressing its concerns about the NCAA  plan’s impact on the academic integrity of our institutions. Quoting from the letter (copy attached): 

[COIA] considers the current course charted by the NCAA and other intercollegiate  athletics decision-makers to be fundamentally misguided. As faculty who are  

responsible for upholding the academic integrity of our institutions, we believe the  recent reorganization plan by the NCAA, supported by college presidents and conference  commissioners, is not in alignment with the academic values of our institutions nor does  it support the principal tenet of the NCAA’s mission: the amateur student-athlete model. 

Following upon those core beliefs, COIA’s leadership then began a final, and last-ditch, attempt to force  a reconsideration of the NCAA’s proposed new governance structure, and sent a letter to all Division 1  university presidents asking them to vote to request a full NCAA presidents’ vote on whether to override  the restructuring plan. Quoting from that letter (copy attached):

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It is unacceptable in substance and as a public statement to support a governance model  that marginalizes the academic perspective in legislative decision-making and that  provides its biggest programs a form of autonomy likely to eliminate those sports which  best exemplify the Collegiate Model. 

COIA is proud of our long history of cooperation with the NCAA. We call for an override  vote of the new governance plan not as an adversary of the NCAA but as its advocate.  We ask for more time and renewed commitment to find a better solution. We hope that  at least 75 Division I presidents, the total necessary to call for an override vote, will  agree and will act before the October 6 deadline. 

Despite this effort receiving widespread media mention (AP wire service reports, CHE, Inside Higher Ed,  USA Today, etc.), only 25 D1 university presidents voted for the call to override. The NCAA’s new  governance structure goes into full effect in fall, 2015. 

On November 9, 2014, after much discussion, COIA joined forces with the Drake Group’s legislative  attempt to request US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama, to create a  President’s Commission to reform intercollegiate athletics. Quoting from that letter (copy attached): 

The opportunity still exists to preserve the positive contributions of college sports and re integrate athletics within the framework of our academic values. Unfortunately,  institutions, either individually or in consortia, have not yet found an adequate solution  to the problems facing intercollegiate athletics, and this includes the recently approved  NCAA restructuring plan. The momentum of market forces and legal rulings thus  increasingly determines events. The national stakes are too high to cede control of  college sports to forces that are not guided by the research and teaching missions of US  higher education. 

At present (April, 2015), the bi-partisan bill [H.R.275 (formerly, HR5743) copy attached] resides in the  Committee on Education and the Workforce of the U.S. House of Representatives. COIA is presently  attempting to gain faculty senate support for the bill in the hope that the bill will be moved out of the  committee and onto the floor of the House of Representatives for discussion in the near future. Also  currently, a companion bill is being prepared for submission to the U.S. Senate for its full consideration. 

COIA Research: The 2014 calendar year also saw a group of COIA members, led by Kelley Withy (University of Hawaii), Adrien Bouchet (The University of Tulsa), and Mike Bowen (University of South  Florida), with the generous cooperation and assistance of Mike Miranda (Associate Director of Research  for Administration, NCAA), work to create a survey of Division I universities, to better understand athletics’ governance issues. That survey was sent to the membership in late January, 2015, with the  results reported at the 2015 annual meeting. A summary of those results, as prepared by Kelley Withy,  is attached, and briefly described below.

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The 2015 COIA National Meeting, San Diego State University, February 20-22, 2015 

Hosted by Bill Snavely (San Diego State University), with the generous support from SDSU President,  Elliot Hirshman, the meeting was held at San Diego State University February 20-22, 2015, San Diego,  CA. Accommodations were at the Town & Country Hotel, while on campus meetings were held at the  SDSU”s Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union (copy of meeting schedule attached). 

Friday, February 20, 2015 

The 2015 Annual COIA meeting was preceded by a Steering Committee meeting on Friday afternoon.  After dinner, the meeting began with an official welcome from host Bill Snavely, and comments from COIA Chair Mike Bowen. 

As at last year’s meeting, attendees then heard an informative and provocative talk by Bob Malekoff,  now of the University of North Carolina. Having been asked to update COIA on the past year’s  developments, and any lessons learned from the scandals at UNC, Bob’s presentation in San Diego was  titled: “Lessons to be drawn from the UNC situation and other violations of academic integrity: How  faculty can be part of the solutions to the problems” (a copy of his PowerPoint slides are attached).  Bob’s talk took us through the major events on the past year related to intercollegiate athletics, a brief  history of the UNC academic scandal and a discussion of what are believed to be its causes (http://3qh929iorux3fdpl532k03kg.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/UNC FINAL-REPORT.pdf): 

  1. a lack of strong and focused presidential (as opposed to AD’s and/or celebrity coaches)  leadership at the university 
  2. a new overreliance on external monies to fund universities 
  3. an overreliance on outside legislation to prevent problems 
  4. the dilution of the universities’ academic goals with athletic goals 
  5. faculty ambivalence towards athletics and its potential impact on institutional integrity 

Some solutions that UNC have developed include (http://carolinacommitment.unc.edu/actions-and initiatives/) : 

  1. increased independent faculty oversight and accountability for athletics and academics 2. creating more diverse committee structures (including community integration) 3. an integration of academic support services for athletes with the wider university 4. a focus on admissions and admissions standards (no Tier 1 special admits) 
  2. independent faculty review of enrollment patterns 
  3. Dean-level approval of all change of grade forms 
  4. Imposed limits on independent study courses 
  5. Creation of a student-athlete academic initiative working group 

A lively discussion followed. The overall conclusion was that faculty throughout the university need to  recognize the important impact that athletics can have on the academic integrity of their institution and  assert, or reassert, better oversight.

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Saturday, February 21, 2015 

8:00 – 9:15 Session 

The Saturday sessions began with a session titled “A Working Conversation with the NCAA on Academic  Misconduct: Current and Future Priorities for Policy”, conducted by NCAA Managing Director of  Membership Affairs, Azure Davey. (copy of her presentation slides attached) 

Davey’s 90 minute session was designed to solicit faculty feedback on pending academic misconduct  legislation designed to update policy that had not been revised since 1983. In the time since the policy  was written, both the academic and intercollegiate athletics landscape have drastically changed,  compelling the current legislation. The core principles driving the proposed legislation were presented  as follows: 

  1. Intercollegiate athletics programs shall be maintained as a vital component of the educational  program, and student-athletes shall be an integral part of the student-body. 
  2. Academic misconduct legislation should be consolidated in the NCAA Manual for ease of  reference. 
  3. Academic misconduct legislation should specify institutional responsibility in determining  whether academic misconduct has occurred. 
  4. Academic misconduct legislation should articulate that when institutional personnel are  involved in student-athlete academic misconduct, an NCAA violation has occurred. 5. Legislation should require written institutional academic misconduct policies for students. 6. Legislation should require schools to adhere to campus policies for all students when student athletes are involved in the alleged misconduct. 
  5. Student-to-student academic misconduct should generally be handled by the institution and not  reported to the NCAA. 
  6. Legislation should specify that providing false or misleading NCAA Division I Academic  Performance Program (APP) information is an NCAA violation. 
  7. There should be a spectrum of penalties associated with various academic misconduct violations  based on the facts and the degree of misconduct associated with each case. 

Issues the NCAA wished to clarify with our faculty included: “What responsibilities do each of our  institutions have in academic integrity cases?” and, “When should the NCAA get involved in academic  misconduct cases on our campuses?” The NCAA’s concerns in this issue seem to clearly be focused our  institutions treating student-athletes the same as we do non-student athletes, and to define academic  misconduct in such a way as to include violations for student-athletes and staff, and to thus hold staff  members in violation of NCAA rules regardless of whether their actions resulted in benefits to the  student-athletes. 

The timeline for next steps on the pending legislation are 1) feedback from members and key external  entities through May, 2015; 2) the Committee on Academics finalizes the legislative proposal in June; 3)  membership review and comment June, 2015-January, 2016; and 4) the legislation is called to a vote by  the NCAA D1 Council, January, 2016. 

9:15 – 11:00am Session 

During this session, Kelley Withy (University of Hawaii) presented the results of a survey discussed at  the 2014 COIA Annual Meeting, and conducted by COIA members Kelley Withy, Adrien Bouchet (Tulsa)  and Mike Bowen, with the generous assistance of the NCAA’s Associate Director of Research, Michael 

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Miranda. The survey was intended to shed some light on faculty’s role in athletics governance on our  campuses, and was sent in late February, 2015 to the then 59 COIA representatives, 207 COIA member  and non-member senate presidents, the 358 D1 FARs. Different versions of the survey, each geared to  

the specific audience (i.e., senate presidents, FARs and COIA reps), were sent. A copy of the survey that  was sent to the FARs is attached. 

A total of 41 COIA reps (70%), 75 faculty senate presidents (36%), and 112 FARs (31%) responded to the  survey. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation Dr. Withy made at the meeting, with survey results  consisting of descriptive statistics and qualitative logs of the responses to the survey questions, is  attached. 

The results of the survey, very difficult to briefly summarize here, offered some genuine insight into the  diversity of faculty are involved in the governance of intercollegiate athletics on our campuses. Of  particular interest, the results show that COIA representatives are elected (82%) or nominated by the  senates (13%) with 5% of COIA reps appointed by the University CEO. FARs become FARs by being  selected by the campus CEO (42%), being nominated by the AD and approved by the CEO, being  nominated by the faculty senate and approved by the CEO (13%) and by being appointed through a  variety of other methods (24%), all of which end with appointment by the CEO. 

Suggestions were made to follow up on the survey, a suggestion that was met with the approval of the  members present. 

12:30 – 5:30 Session 

Titled “The Future of COIA: Organization and Leadership Issues”, this session tacked the pressing issues  currently facing COIA regarding the make-up and membership of the COIA Steering Committee, and  COIA’s leadership structure and succession policies. The discussion began with a round table discussion  where each attendee was asked to offer comments on the current state of COIA, how the organization  was doing as a representative of our member senates, and the kinds of things that COIA could do to  better serve the membership. The conversations that resulted were frank, constructive, informative and  most helpful to all those in attendance who care deeply about our institutions and intercollegiate  athletics. 

After everyone had their say on the issues, Mike Bowen explained the urgent needs for the organization  to restructure, and perhaps reconstitute, the COIA Steering Committee due to retirements, conference realignment having left some conferences over- and some under-represented on the committee. He  also explained the need for COIA to deal with long-term leadership issues, including cultivating and  involving the next generation of COIA leadership. 

He also outlined an idea to form a national organization of faculty senates that would provide a national  forum for discussing issues of relevance to faculty and faculty governance bodies and help strengthen  faculty voice, of which COIA or some successor to COIA, would serve as a sub-group. That idea was  tabled for discussion at future meetings. 

The ensuing conversation brought out the strongly supported suggestion that COIA needs to regain its  former spirit by issuing an update to the acclaimed “Framing the Future” paper, or producing a new  document on that order. There was also a great deal of conversation on the possible future structure of  the COIA Steering Committee, a structure not based on conference representation, but rather based on COIA’s organizational needs and tasks. The conversation on this topic generated a loose consensus that 

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COIA might restructure around a set of officers (Chair and Vice-Chair) and three working groups (a  Student Athlete Welfare work group; an Academic Integrity work group, and an Administration and  Communications workgroup). Using this as a tentative model, the attendees split into three such working groups, which then convened in a separate break-out room. 

Each of the work groups then discussed possible roles for the group as COIA moves forward, and were  asked to select leaders for each committee. Bruce Dugger (Oregon State University) was selected as  Head of the Administration and Communications committee, while Patrick Arndt (University of  Minnesota) was selected as Head of the Academic Integrity Committee. Copies of two of the groups’ output (Administration and Communication, and, Academic Integrity) are attached. Those  conversations are ongoing at this time and will be first subject to acceptance of the restructuring plan by  the current COIA Steering Committee, and then subject to members joining and contributing to each  committees charge. The consensus at the meeting was that each COIA representative should choose to  join one of the committees. An incomplete, but best available, list of each of the committee’s  membership is attached. 

Sunday, February 22, 2015 (Prepared from notes taken by Betty Sindelar, Ohio University) 

9:00 – 10:00am Session 

The morning session began with a presentation from Gerry Gurney (University of Oklahoma) and Allen  Sack (University of new Haven) from the Drake Group (handout attached). 

Presentation started with background information regarding the Drake Group and the NCAA. 

The Drake Group is interested in college sports reform and the value of education in  relationship to the collegiate athlete. In addition, fiscal responsibility must be considered in the  reform process. 

NCAA does not respond proactively but is instead influenced by lawsuits and publicity. The  NCAA is not capable of self-reform. 

Current lawsuits (specifically the O’Bannon and Kessler-Jenkins cases) threaten the integrity of  college sports in relation to academics and a university experience 

Second portion of presentation focused on House Bill HR 5743 (HR5743 is the number of the bill as  introduced in Fall, 2014. HR 275 is the number of the bill as reintroduced in Spring, 2015). Bill developed from a meeting among members of the Drake Group, the Secretary of Education,  congressmen, and White House staff on domestic policy. Results of the meeting were that: 

o The issue of college sports reform can be a bipartisan issue. Support for reform  measures was garnered from the members of this meeting. 

o The best way to approach the current system is to put emphasis on student/athletes  being more like any student at an academic institute – suggestions included shortening  sports seasons and including student/athletes in academic remediation processes that  are available for all students. 

o White House staff drafted a memorandum for President Obama regarding the meeting 

From this meeting, HR 5743 was developed through a collaborative effort of the Drake Group  and congress members. A complete version of the bill is included in the handouts. Essentially 

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the bill proposes that a Presidential commission be established and funded whose purpose will  be to identify and examine issues of national concern regarding intercollegiate athletics. 

Final portion of presentation consisted of answering questions from the audience. Question topics were  as follows: 

Implications of Kessler-Jenkins lawsuit: Kessler sued NCAA for anti-trust violations. Legal  consensus is that Kessler’s case is strong. If Kessler wins, potential results include no limit on  athletic scholarships, open market bidding for talented collegiate athletes, end of Olympic  sports especially for male athletes, and Title IX issues.  

Implications of O’Bannon lawsuit: Case focuses on institutes’ use of athlete’s name, image, and  likeness. Ruling in favor of O’Bannon could result in each athlete receiving up to $5000/year in  a trust fund. Cost of attendance and multi-year scholarships are responses to this case. 

What is the power of investigation created by HR 5743? Recommendations to the President of  the U.S. that would include law implementation/changes. 

Timeline of HR 5743 is one year – is that sufficient? The authors of the bill believed that the  timeline is sufficient to create the commission, hold the investigation, and make  recommendations to the President. 

Who has the lobbying power to get HR 5743 through congress? Currently there are 2  congressmen lobbying for the bill and the NCAA has increased their budget for lobbying efforts  for this year.  

Will the lawsuit from the athletes at Northwestern University affect the bipartisan aspect of the  HR 5743? The issue of unionization does have the possibility of polarizing the efforts for HR  5743 based on traditional party-line interests. 

Other current efforts by the Drake Group: The Drake Group functions as a think-tank and  advocacy group and as such is constantly reviewing events that have the potential to influence  intercollegiate athletics and responding to them. The Group is currently writing a book on  reforming college sports. 

Joining the Drake Group: the Drake Group is open to individual membership only. Please see  their website. 

Efforts by Drake Group to join with other groups in support of HR 5743: process has only just  begun. 

Speculation on unintended consequences to HR 5743: the commission will not fully investigate  all aspects of intercollegiate athletics. This might lead to little or no substantive changes occurring or that the Power 5 becomes stronger. 

How can COIA help? By supporting HR 5743 by notifying faculty of efforts, contacting bill  supporters, and contacting individual congressional representatives when the time comes.  Discussion about a member of COIA being named to the commission established by HR 5743.  The Drake Group will keep in touch with COIA to up-date on progress of HR 5743. 

10:00 – 11:00am Session: Business meeting 

Suggestion to invite representative from Knight Commission. Mike Bowen stated that they  were contacted but were not able to come to meeting this year. 

Presentation of COIA governing structure developed during yesterday’s meeting. Discussion  regarding some process issues that would need to be worked out in the future of new structure  is adopted. Motion by Bill Snavely: “I move that the COIA members here direct the current  steering committee to create the language and by-law changes needed to implement the 

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presented restructuring changes. These changes will then be sent out to COIA members for a  formal vote.” Seconded. Since not all COIA members were present at this meeting, a sense of  the members present was taken. Vote was 27 in favor and 2 abstentions.  

Informal vote was taken regarding the number of university athletic councils that have  discussed eliminating sports within the last year. About one half of the remaining members  raised hands.  

Discussion on efforts to increase participation of more institutions in COIA. If new structure is  approved, then the subcommittee on Administration & Communication will be tasked with this  job. 

Discussion on the most effective means of COIA to help the Drake Group regarding the  commission (assuming that HR 5743 is passed). Membership on the commission would have  influence on the activities of the investigation. If a member were on the commission, COIA  might not be able to testify during the investigation. However, members could testify as  individuals but not as COIA reps.  

Discussion on expanding membership to include FCS institutions: points were noted that issues  are common among FBS and FCS schools, expanding could dilute the effectiveness of the group,  and committees could become too large. One solution was that COIA might be a position to  assist the FCS institutes in setting up a similar group to COIA.  

Tasks for members: 

o Bring a motion to your faculty senate requesting a 5 year appointment for COIA  representative. 

o Take your FAR to lunch initiative. 

Recognition of Mike Bowen for all of his efforts on behalf of COIA this past year. Recognition of  Bill Snavely for his efforts in organizing this meeting. Mike Bowen charged to write formal letter  of thanks to the President of SDSU for his tremendous support of this meeting.  Mike Bowen to explore possibility of 2016 meeting in Indianapolis. 

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The Annual Meeting schedule can be downloaded HERE.

As announced previously, the 2015 COIA Annual Meeting will be held in San Diego, hosted by San Diego State University, February 20-22, 2015.  While the program is not set at this time, the program will begin on Friday evening, 6:00pm, and run through noon, Sunday, February 22, 2015.

Our local COIA host, Bill Snavely, having made all of the arrangements for the meeting, has reserved rooms for attendees at the gorgeous Town & Country Resort and Convention Center  http://www.towncountry.com/ .  Please reserve your rooms soon by following the link provided here: https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_ei_new&eventID=12558321. San Diego State will include trolley passes for everyone who registers for the meeting.  Please follow the following link  https://sdsupsfa.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_cYZcBxlmnMtlt7T  to register for the meeting.  Free Wi-Fi is included in the hotel rate.

The meeting itself will be held both at the hotel and the Union building at the university. The hotel is a reasonable trolley ride to campus or to Old Town or Gas Lamp District for dining and entertainment.

We’ll be back in touch with more details about what should be a most interesting, informative, and important meeting as it gets closer.  Again, please reserve your hotel room as soon as possible.

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