[Note third paragraph call for response with deadline, in red.]
Subject: Athletics Governance - COIA Proposal Draft
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 16:47:46 -0500 (EST)
From: Bob Eno <eno@indiana.edu>
To: COIA - Members:
Dear Coalition Colleagues,
To begin, I'd like to welcome colleagues from Arizona, Nebraska, and Rutgers to the Coalition, bringing the COIA membership to twenty-four schools. An updated email list of representatives is below. A number of senate chairs have let us know of votes coming up this month, and we look forward to welcoming additional members soon.
This message represents our first attempt to move a Coalition action initiative through our new, senate-based membership structure. The Steering Committee, with this message, is forwarding to you a detailed proposal to adopt a set of best-practice models for Division IA campus athletics governance, including a limited number of NCAA bylaw revisions. This proposal grows out of work sessions held at last October's AAUP governance conference, at which faculty leaders and FARs discussed best-practice proposals developed by Scott Kretchmar, the FAR at Penn State. Workshop participants urged the Steering Committee to develop a version that the COIA could adopt, and that might also serve as a model that the national Faculty Athletics Representatives Association (FARA) could endorse. The committee pursued this goal by establishing a joint subcommittee with FARA, including members of the FARA leadership. The proposal you are now receiving is their work, revised with their continued participation by the Steering Committee.
We ask now that you consider this proposal and provide feedback, with the goal of a decision on adoption, through a vote of COIA members, by March 31. Because this proposal will potentially have impact on all Division IA schools, we are inviting faculty senate leaders on every Div-IA campus to comment, requesting their feedback by March 22. Between March 22 and 31, based on input we have received and shared with you, the Steering Committee will attempt to modify the draft in a way that best represents your views as Coalition member schools. (I will be following this message with one announcing the proposal to all Div-IA schools; because you are all on those email lists, you will receive the second message as well.)
Our hope is that on March 31, a revised draft will receive a positive vote from you, and will become the basis of COIA policy and of the Steering Committee's further advocacy efforts. If it does, the FARA Executive Committee has indicated it will consider adopting the document, or a very similar one, at its April meeting, perhaps incorporating sections into its FAR "Handbook" and helping introduce bylaw proposals into the NCAA legislative stream.
While a comment/amendment period of almost a month may seem protracted, you will find that the document is quite comprehensive and very detailed. It includes a compilation of successful practices that can serve as a resource for campuses assessing the strength of their governance structures. It envisions a small number of NCAA bylaw changes; apart from these, its premise is that local faculty are best able to design governance structures for their campuses, but that all of us are helped when successful ideas are shared.
While it is up to each school to decide how best to discuss this proposal, we recommend that you circulate it at an early stage for comment by your campus FARs and athletics committee chairs, and you may well want to consult more broadly. This is a public document - we are posting it on our website - and you should feel free to convey and discuss it however you see fit.
This will be a trial run of our Coalition mechanism, and we suggest the following procedures, as far as they prove workable: Please convey all comments to me. During the initial comment period, I'll try to collate reactions and pass comments along to the entire membership at intervals, hoping to minimize how trying this email experience will be. Towards the end of the month, as we move towards a vote, we can move to a final group discussion, exchanging messages through the Coalition email list.
Because the governance document is long and detailed, we are posting two versions of it on our webpage: a full-text version and an outline version with links to individual sections. In circulating the proposal, it may be easiest simply to refer colleagues to our website. The address is below.
Thanks for your membership in the Coalition. We look forward to learning your views of the governance proposal.
Best,
Bob Eno
Indiana University
Co-Chair, Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics
http://www.coia.umd.edu
********************************************
Representatives of Coalition Senates
(alphabetically by school)
# marks 2003-04 faculty senate leaders; others are liaisons
@ marks COIA Steering Committee members
# "John Mason (Alabama)" <jomason@cba.ua.edu>
# "Wanda Howell (Arizona)" <whhowell@ag.arizona.edu>
"Andy Silverman (Arizona)" <silverman@law.arizona.edu>
#@ "Curt Rom (Arkansas)" <crom@uark.edu>
# "Nancy Allen (Duke)" <allen024@mc.duke.edu>
@ "Kathleen Smith (Duke)" <kksmith@duke.edu>
# "Sally McCracken (Eastern Mich.)" <sally.mccracken@emich.edu>
"Howard Bunsis (Eastern Mich.)" <howard.bunsis@emich.edu>
# "Mary Tiles (Hawaii)" <mtiles@hawaii.edu>
"Tom Schroeder (Hawaii)" <tas@hawaii>
# "Francis Wagner (Idaho)" <fwagner@uidaho.edu>
# "David Daleke (Indiana)" <daleked@indiana.edu>
"Dan Maki (Indiana)" <maki@indiana.edu>
# "Margaret Raymond (Iowa)" <margaret-raymond@uiowa.edu>
# "Charlie Koopmann (Michigan)" <koopmann@umich.edu>
# "Judith Martin (Minnesota)" <jmartin@umn.edu>
@ "Gary Engstrand (Minnesota)" <graye@umn.edu>
# "Ed Acevedo (Mississippi)" <eacevedo@olemiss.edu>
"David Rock (Mississippi)" <rockd@olemiss.edu>
# "John Wunder (Nebraska)" <jwunder@unlserve.unl.edu>
"Sidnie Crawford (Nebraska)" <scrawford1@unlnotes.unl.edu>
# "Beverly Burris (New Mexico)" <bburris@unm.edu>
# "Bruce Wessels (Northwestern)" <b-wessels@northwestern.edu>
# "Carol Moder (Oklahoma State)" <clm1011@okstate.edu>
@ "Ed Lawry (Oklahoma State)" <elawry@okstate.edu>
# "Lowell Bowditch (Oregon)" <bowditch@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
@ "Jim Earl (Oregon)" <jwearl@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
# "Paul Panayotatos (Rutgers)" <panayot@ece.rutgers.edu>
# "Jim Augustine (South Carolina)" <AUG@gw.med.sc.edu>
# "Thomas Wasow (Stanford)" <wasow@csli.stanford.edu>
# "Marvin Hackert (Texas)" <m.hackert@mail.utexas.edu>
@ "Michael Granof (Texas)" <michael.granof@bus.utexas.edu>
# "Nadia Lahutsky (TCU)" <N.Lahutsky@tcu.edu>
"Linda Moore (TCU)" <l.moore@tcu.edu>
# "Matthew Ramsey (Vanderbilt)" <matthew.ramsey@vanderbilt.edu>
@ "Virginia Shepherd (Vanderbilt)" <shephev@aol.com>
# "Ronald Brosemer (Washington State)" <xaire@wsu.edu>