National Meeting – 2018

2018 Annual Meeting Highlights

COIA 2018 Annual Meeting    April 21, 2018     CU, Boulder, CO       Host: Scott Gwozdz

Present: Jane Albrecht, Wake Forest; Margaret Blake, Houston; Adrien Bouchet, Tulsa; Mike Bowen, USF; Larry Gramling, UConn; Scott Gwozdz, Colorado; Darren Kelly, UT-Austin; Joan King, LSU; Stephen Marshall, UT-Austin; Steven Minaglia, Hawaii; Bonnie Ownley, UTenn; John Putman, SDSU; Jaci Van Heest, UConn; Kelley Withy, Hawaii

Effective Oversight of Intercollegiate Athletics and the Role of Faculty

Meeting Highlights

Election of New COIA Officers: Chair, Bonnie Ownley; Vice Chair, Joan King; Secretary, Jane Albrecht; Immediate Past Chair, Mike Bowen; Chair of Administration and Communication Committee, Kelley Withy; Chair of Student Athlete Welfare Committee, Scott Gwozdz; Chair of Academic Integrity Committee, Adrien Bouchet; at-large member 1 year, Larry Gramling; at-large 2 years, John Putman. 

ANNOUNCEMENT OF NEXT TWO ANNUAL MEETINGS:

February 2019 U Tennessee-Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, hosted by Bonnie Ownley;

February 2020 LSU, Baton Rouge LA, hosted by Joan King. 

After discussion, the membership voted to recommend inviting NCAA Division I FCS schools to join COIA. This recommendation will go to the member senates for opinions, as will changes to the bylaws if the decision is made to invite FCS schools to join.

Adrien Bouchet will lead a COIA study on academic integrity collecting data through a survey or surveys of FARs, athletics departments, provosts, Senate presidents and COIA reps, with the goal of creating ideas of best practices.

Food for Thought from Two Speakers

Robert “Bob” Malekoff, UNC-Chapel Hill

The NCAA it is under siege from Congress, student players’ union, the player likeness suit, the Adidas bribery scandal. But these are minor compared to the major problem, which is how intercollegiate athletics (IA) is integrated with academics on campuses. The onus is on the faculty to oversee athletics.  How to engage faculty? Be intentional and deliberate and hit on two or three themes: 1) focus on the student experience, to have as good an experience academically as possible; 2) define academic integrity on each campus. Is the problem just in athletics? Are there bunches of classes that aren’t rigorous on your individual campus? Or is there clustering in certain majors? 3) and this is key: admit students who can do the work. Know who is on your campuses “special admits” committee and know how they track students.  The best work can be done locally.

Roger Pielke, University of Colorado

Student athletes create value for the universities.  Why is it so difficult for faculty to get their heads around that?  Ideas that faculty should support: 1) award college credit for sports participation based on the model of music; 2) tailor opportunities to athletes, teach more true online courses, dedicate faculty to support athletes, set flexible meeting times like Monday-Tuesday classes, offer course work on sports; 3) support more equitable compensation. Compensation does not have to be a salary paid:  athletes should have name, image and likeness rights; receive stipends that are tied to the lowest stipend paid to a TA on campus; and receive cash prizes from the NCAA after March Madness on the model of Olympic prize money.