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MONTHLY UPDATE // ISSUE NO. 149 // APRIL 2018
This update is a tool to enhance communication between the NCAA national office and the Division III membership, with distribution to athletics directors, senior woman administrators, faculty athletics representatives, presidents, national Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, conference commissioners and the National Association of Division III Athletic Administrators electronic mailing list. We encourage athletics directors to share this communication with their department members. Please contact Louise McCleary
to include an item or share comments, and remember to check out the Division III governance homepage for the latest news. |
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ACTION REQUEST: 2018 Convention Planning Survey. Please complete this three-question
survey to help the Convention Planning Subcommittee determine the 2019 Division III educational sessions and Issues Forum roundtable topics.
Football Preseason Waivers.
At its March 6 meeting, the NCAA Division III Administrative Committee reviewed and approved the Division III Football Committee's recommendation for the following blanket waivers applicable during the 2018 football preseason:
- Allow athletically related activities during the administrative day and a half.
- Allow the use of footballs during walk-through sessions after the acclimatization period.
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Allow the flexibility to extend the walk-through session when contact practice on that same day is shorter than three hours. This waiver allows institutions that don't use the full three hours of contact practice to add the remaining time to the walk-through session on the same day (e.g., conduct a two-hour contact practice and two-hour walk-through session).
The governance structure and membership will continue to explore permanent legislative alternatives to the current preseason football model for possible consideration at the 2019 NCAA Convention and beyond. If you have questions, please contact Jeff Myers, director of academic and membership affairs. |
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Division III Week - April 2-8.
Join us next week, April 2-8, for the seventh annual celebration of Division III Week by calling attention to the unique student-athlete experience at your campus or conference. Division III members are asked to highlight the activities and achievements of current student-athletes by scheduling an academic, athletics, co-curricular or extracurricular/community service activity. The Division III Week Communications Kit serves as a planning guide, and further information about Division III Week is
available online. Please let us know, in advance, all planned Division III Week activities, either by submitting information via the online form, or sending it to d3identity@ncaa.org
. Join the social conversation by following us on Twitter (@NCAADIII) and using #d3week and #whyD3. For every new Twitter follower NCAA Division III will donate $1 to Special Olympics. Share the excitement with family and friends and don't forget to submit your footage to d3identity@ncaa.org for a chance to win the Division III video contest! For rules and details, click here. Please contact
Adam Skaggs with questions.
Podcast with Management Council Vice-Chair.
The senior woman administrator (SWA) is the highest-ranking female involved in the management of a school's athletics program. But, for those who fill the role, what does that designation entail? And what obstacles do female administrators face, even today? Jack Ford recently spoke with Kate Roy, associate director of athletics, compliance coordinator and SWA at Northern Vermont University. Click here to listen.
Sexual Violence Prevention Policy. In August 2017, the NCAA Board of Governors adopted an
Association-wide policy, recommended by the NCAA Commission To Combat Campus Sexual Violence, to reinforce previous Association efforts in addressing campus sexual violence. This form is available on NCAA Program Hub
, should be signed by the required signatories and uploaded by the director of athletics not later than May 15. The names of colleges and universities that complete the attestation form will be included in a report delivered each year to the Board of Governors and subsequently published on ncaa.org. Please direct any questions about the policy or attestation form process to questions@ncaa.org.
Division III Video.Click here to watch a short video detailing how NCAA Division III works.
ACTION REQUEST: LGBTQ-inclusive Policies and Inclusion Statements.
Does your athletics department or conference have an LGBTQ-inclusive policy? If so, the Division III LGBTQ Working Group invites you to share it. The working group is looking for sample policies from across Division III to inform its development of LGBTQ-inclusive template language for Division III athletics departments and conferences. This initiative was based on feedback received at the 2018 Division III business session, in which 85 percent of survey respondents indicated they would use template language to develop LGBTQ-inclusive language to develop policy statements, inclusion statements and nondiscrimination clauses
for their handbooks, if made available. To submit policies or to ask questions, please contact Jean Merrill. The deadline to submit is Wednesday, April 18.
ACTION REQUEST:
Graduation Rate Collection.The Academic Portal for the federal graduation rates and enrollment data is now open. The submission deadline is June 1.
Institutions can access the site through the NCAA's Single Source Sign-On (SSSO) system. In addition to the required student body reporting, Division III members are strongly encouraged to provide the voluntary graduation success rate data for the 2011-2012 student-athlete cohort. Please contact Maria DeJulio or Eric Hartung with any questions.
NCAA Division III Webinars.The next Division III webinar will be 1:30-2 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday, April 3. The topic will be an overview of the publicity and electronic communications legislation.
Future webinars will be conducted on the following dates from 1:30 to 2 p.m. Eastern time:
- May 1 - Updates from the Division III Management and Presidents Councils.
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June 5 - Division III diversity grants and identity initiative.
- July 3 - No webinar.
Each webinar will be limited to the first 250 participants. Additional webinars and/or recordings, will be provided if necessary.
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FACULTY ATHLETICS REPRESENTATIVES (FAR) UPDATES |
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New FAR Orientation.
Division III is introducing a new professional development event for faculty athletics representatives (FARs) in 2018. Rather than host the FAR Fellows Leadership Institute in October, Division III is planning to offer an in-depth orientation for new FARs, hosted in conjunction with the Nov. 1-3 Faculty Athletics Representatives Association (FARA) annual meeting in Baltimore. The Leadership Institute will return in October 2019.
Staff members are finalizing the program details, but the 2018 event will be a fully funded opportunity for 25 new FARs to become familiar with the Division III model of athletics and related national issues. Participants will create an action plan based on the content addressed at the FARA annual meeting and will have ample opportunity to build a network of new and experienced FARs. Applications will open in Program Hub on May 1. More details will be shared as they become available. Contact
Leah Kareti with any questions.
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2018 CoSIDA Convention Registration.
On-line registration for the 2018 CoSIDA Convention
, taking place June 27-30 in Washington D.C. in conjunction with NACDA and Affiliates Convention Week, is now open. A day featuring Division III specific programming will occur on Thursday, June 28. Similar to past years, additional dollars were added to the Division III Conference Grant specifically to allow campus athletics communication directors and sports information directors to receive funding for this professional development opportunity. Ask your conference commissioner for details.
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Prevention Tip.
Is the end of the academic year really coming up? What steps need to be taken as summer approaches? Consider tips for summer planning discussed in the 3/27/15 webinar.
Webinar Schedule.
360 Proof offers a monthly webinar series to bring current prevention research to a Division III and NASPA Small Colleges and Universities audience. The final session for 2017-18 will be conducted at 1 p.m. Eastern time, on April 11, and is titled "Getting Wasted: Why College Students Drink Too Much and Party So Hard", by Tom Vander Ven, Ph.D., Ohio University. All 360 Proof account holders will receive an invitation to attend these webinar sessions, and all sessions are recorded. Please contact Leah Kareti
with any questions about 360 Proof, or to find out how to access webinar videos.
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CARE Consortium.
This new page
on ncaa.org provides updates and timelines on the NCAA-U.S. Department of Defense Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Consortium. The largest concussion study in history, the CARE Consortium is designed to provide a framework for a future longitudinal study that will examine both the intermediate and long-term effects of concussion and repetitive head impact exposure.
NCAA Chief Medical Officer Message.
Recently, NCAA Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline, sent two emails to the membership. One message addressed the health and safety issue of exertional rhabdomyolysis, which is a potentially fatal, but preventable, condition. Guiding principles were provided regarding strength and conditioning sessions, and sports medicine staff and sports performance teams on campus are encouraged to discuss prevention strategies that incorporate the guidelines. The other email message included information about mental health and encouraged athletics staff and team captains to remind student-athletes about the importance of self-care and helping others when
there is a problem, or a friend or teammate is in distress. For a copy of these emails, please contact the SSI at ssi@ncaa.org.
CSMAS December Report.
The full report from the December 2017 Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports is available here.
NCAA Football Data Task Force Executive Summary.
In late February, the NCAA held a two-day Football Data Task Force at the NCAA national office. The task force explored preliminary information from the NCAA Injury Surveillance Program and the NCAA-Department of Defense CARE Consortium study about the 2017 football season. An executive summary of the event will be available this spring.
Mental Health Task Force Deliverables.
Following the November 2017's Task Force to Advance Mental Health Best Practices strategies, the SSI has worked collaboratively with task force members, mental health experts and member schools to develop new mental health resources for the NCAA membership. Many of these new items are slated to be available in May and an announcement will be sent to the membership when they are released.
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The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) is the recipient of the March Division III Diversity Spotlight Initiative. The conference hosted a leadership symposium that provided a cost-free professional development opportunity for women in the UMAC. The symposium fostered education and networking to help develop future women leaders who will pursue roles in coaching and athletics administration. Click here for more information and a photo gallery.
The Diversity Spotlight Initiative recognizes and promotes outstanding diversity related projects, programming and initiatives that are occurring on Division III campuses and in conference offices. All selected recipients receive $500 toward their next diversity initiative. To submit an initiative for consideration for April, please email Louise McCleary
, with a brief statement (no more than 500 words) as to why your institution or conference office deserves to be the spotlight recipient. Attach a video or photo if applicable. The nomination deadline is April 21.
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Spotlight Poll.
The NCAA Division III Special Olympics Spotlight Poll is a story-telling initiative located on ncaa.org/D3SpecialOlympics
. It features new stories each month that highlight a Division III and Special Olympics joint activity or event. The story with the highest number of votes on the 25th day of each month is the winner. That institution or conference receives $500 to use for its next Special Olympics event. Both written and digital submissions are accepted. Featured stories are selected based on inclusion of the student-athlete perspective and Division III messaging. To submit a story for consideration, please email
d3specialolympics@ncaa.org.
March Winner.
After 834 total votes,
Babson Athletics Partners with Special Olympics, Hosts Community Basketball Games won the March Special Olympics Spotlight Poll by gathering 61 percent of the total votes! Babson College will receive $500 to use for its next Special Olympics event. To submit a story for consideration, please email d3specialolympics@ncaa.org.
April Nominees. Here are the stories for the April Special Olympics poll:
Click here
to vote starting Monday, April 2. The winner will be selected April 26. |
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Rule of the Month.
Institutional financial aid policies and procedures should adhere to Division III principles and regulations pertaining to financial aid packaging as it relates to packaging financial aid to incoming and returning student-athletes. For this reason, institutional athletics department staff members are prohibited from any direct or indirect involvement or influence in the review or award of a student-athlete's institutional financial aid.
Institutions should follow these guidelines when evaluating an athletics department staff member's involvement in or interaction with the financial aid office:
Permissible actions:
- Communication between the athletics department and the clerical/support staff in the financial aid office in order to determine whether a particular prospective student-athlete's financial aid forms have been submitted.
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Athletics department staff sending a list of names of student-athletes to the financial aid office in order to assist the financial aid staff in completing the annual NCAA Division III financial aid reporting process.
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Referring student-athletes or prospective student-athletes with questions about their financial aid packages to the financial aid office. Any modifications to an incoming or returning student-athlete's financial aid package should be based on the institution's written policies and procedures for financial aid packaging applicable to the general student body.
Impermissible actions:
- Athletics staff notifying a student-athlete or prospective student-athlete about their financial aid package. The initial communication of a student-athlete's financial aid package amount should occur between the student-athlete or his or her parents or guardian and the institution's financial aid office.
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Athletics staff serving on the institution's financial aid committee. However, a faculty member who also serves as the institution's faculty athletics representative would not be precluded from serving on an institutional financial aid committee as long as the individual is not a coach or athletics department staff member.
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As a best practice, athletics staff generally should not work in the financial aid office. However, an athletics department staff member who also works in the financial aid office may continue to do so only if the individual is not involved in the financial aid decision-making process or in the packaging of financial aid for any student.
The prohibition on athletics staff involvement in financial aid also can impact an institution's operations within the admissions office. Athletics department staff who are involved in any capacity with the institutional admissions office cannot administer, oversee or otherwise influence any admissions matrix system or other admissions rating formula that directly or indirectly impacts institutional financial aid packaging decisions.
If an institution uses an admissions-matrix rating system to evaluate and rank incoming student applicants, athletics department staff are not permitted to score, rank or otherwise influence any admissions rating of any student, including student-athletes, if the admissions-matrix rating score is used in any way to determine the financial aid package of any student, including student-athletes.
In light of this area of overlap, institutions should also keep the following points in mind:-
Enrollment management personnel, including admissions office staff, are permitted to be employed by the athletics department as long as those individuals have no role in the administration of financial aid (e.g., need analysis, aid packaging).
- An athletics department staff member who also serves as an admissions officer is precluded from having any input regarding the recipients of any institutionally administered grants or scholarships (e.g., presidential, merit, academic, leadership, etc.).
Finally, regardless of whether athletics department staff is involved, no Division III institution that considers leadership activities as a component in its financial aid packaging formula may consider athletics when determining his or her financial aid package. For example, while elements such as high school athletics participation, outside club MVP awards, all-tournament honors, high school letter winner, all-state/all-conference selection or status as a team captain are permitted to be included within the institution's initial determination of whether a student should be admitted to the institution, an institution may not consider any factors of
athletics involvement, ability, leadership or participation when considering leadership activities for the purpose of determining his or her financial aid package. Any such elements that are considered in the admissions matrix-rating system must be removed from the rating system before the review of the student-athlete's application by the financial aid office. [NCAA Division III Bylaw 15.4.5 (athletics staff involvement) and Bylaw 15.4.6 (matrix-rating system); Jan. 7, 2013, Official Interpretation--Athletics Department Staff Involvement with Financial Aid Office]
Kaitlyn Purcell Joins Division III AMA Staff. The academic and membership affairs (AMA) staff is pleased to welcome Kaitlyn Purcell to the Division III team as an assistant director. Kaitlyn previously worked as a contractor in the NCAA Eligibility Center and as a contractor and postgraduate intern in AMA for Division I. Before working at the NCAA national office, she was a women's basketball student-athlete at Clemson University, earned her Juris Doctor at Florida State University and interned for the United States Olympic Committee and High Point University.
SAR Update.
Requests to waive a student-athlete's 10-semester period of eligibility (Bylaw 14.2.2) are subject to a two-prong analysis. The first prong focuses on whether a student-athlete was denied two seasons of participation for reasons beyond the control of the student-athlete and institution. The second prong focuses on whether the student-athlete had four seasons of participation opportunity during his or her 10-semester period of eligibility. For cases in which a student-athlete has two denied participation opportunities, the reinstatement staff may consider an extension request as early as when the student-athlete has entered his or her eighth full-time semester
or twelfth full-time quarter of enrollment, conditioned on the student-athlete maintaining full-time enrollment during the remainder of his or her 10-semester/15-quarter period of eligibility.
Regional Rules Seminars. Constitution 3.2.4.15 requires all Division III institutions to attend a Regional Rules Seminar at least once in every three years. Click here
to see which schools are required to attend in 2018. Registration for the 2018 NCAA Regional Rules Seminars is now open. Seminars will be conducted June 4-6 in Atlanta and June 25-27 in San Antonio. The Regional Rules Seminar registration link, daily schedule, grid and session descriptions are available on the Regional Rules Seminar web page.
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Woman of the Year.
The 2018 Woman of the Year application period, available on NCAA Program Hub, closes at 5 p.m. Eastern time Monday, June 11. Click here to learn more about the Woman of the Year Award, and click here
to learn more about the nomination and award process. To be eligible, a nominee must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport, must have completed eligibility in her primary sport, and must have earned her undergraduate degree by summer 2018.
NCAA Honor Awards.
The NCAA Honors awards recognize current and former student-athletes who have brought distinction to themselves, their schools and intercollegiate athletics. The awards will be presented at the Honors Celebration during the 2019 NCAA Convention in Orlando, Florida. Submit your nominations for the following awards by 5 p.m. Eastern time Friday, May 4
, through the "Applications" tab on NCAA Program Hub:
Questions about the awards? Contact
Sharon Tufano, NCAA committee coordinator.
Sportsmanship Awards.
The Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct (CSEC) is accepting nominations for the 2017-18 NCAA Student-Athlete Sportsmanship and Bob Frederick Sportsmanship awards. The Student-Athlete Sportsmanship Award honors student-athletes and teams who have distinguished themselves through demonstrated acts of sportsmanship and ethical behavior. The Bob Frederick Sportsmanship Award honors coaches, administrators and staff who display the utmost respect for NCAA intercollegiate athletics by upholding a demonstrated history of sportsmanship. The CSEC will select one male and one female recipient and/or group of recipients for each division. Of the
divisional award recipients, one will be recognized as the overall NCAA Student-Athlete Sportsmanship award winner. The committee will announce the Student-Athlete Sportsmanship and the Bob Frederick Sportsmanship Award in August 2018. Please review the award criteria below for both awards. Nominations for both awards are being accepted now through Friday, July 6, 2018 on NCAA Program Hub.
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Men's and Women's Soccer Rules Survey.
The men's and women's soccer rules survey is now available. For more information, click here.
Football.
The football rules survey is now available. For more information, click here.
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For the latest hires, promotions, retirements and to find out who is going where in college athletics check out the NCAA Record
which includes regularly updated transactions. To inform the NCAA of any new hires, retirements, promotions and death notices, please email transactions@ncaa.org.
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Two committees conducted in-person meetings in March.
Administrative Committee Meeting, March 6Strategic Planning and Finance Committee, March 27
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2018 |
Dates |
Meeting/Championships |
Location |
April 9-10 |
Management Council Meeting |
Indianapolis, Indiana |
April 10-11 |
Wrestling Committee Meeting |
Indianapolis, Indiana |
April 12-13 |
Committee on Women's Athletics Meeting |
Indianapolis, Indiana |
April 12-13 |
Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee Meeting |
Indianapolis, Indiana |
April 14-16 |
Inclusion Forum |
Indianapolis, Indiana |
April 15-16 | Student-Athlete Advisory Committee Meeting |
Indianapolis, Indiana |
April 16-18 |
Women's Basketball Committee Meeting | Indianapolis, Indiana |
April 17-19 |
Swimming and Diving Committee Meeting |
Indianapolis, Indiana | April 24-25 | Presidents Council Meeting | Indianapolis, Indiana |
April 27-28 | Men's Volleyball Championship | Kenosha, Wisconsin | April 28-30 | Walter Byers Scholarship Committee Meeting |
Indianapolis, Indiana | May 8-11 | Women's Golf Championship | Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida | May 15-16 |
Student-Athlete Reinstatement Committee Meeting | Indianapolis, Indiana | May 15-16 | Men's Golf Championship | Greensboro, North Carolina |
May 21-26 | Men's and Women's Tennis Championship | Claremont, California | May 24-26 | Men and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championship |
LaCrosse, Wisconsin | May 24-29 | Softball Championship | Oklahoma City, Oklahoma | May 25-26 | Rowing Championship
| Sarasota, Florida | May 25-29 | Baseball Championship | Appleton, Wisconsin | May 26-27 |
Women's Lacrosse Championship | Salem, Virginia | May 27 | Men's Lacrosse Championship | Foxborough, Massachusetts |
June 5-6 | Regional Rules Seminar | Atlanta, Georgia | June 13-15 | Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sport |
Indianapolis, Indiana | June 14 | Conference Rules Seminar | York, Pennsylvania | June 18-19 |
Championships Committee Meeting | Indianapolis, Indiana | June 20-21 | Membership Committee Meeting | Indianapolis, Indiana |
June 26-27 | Regional Rules Seminar | San Antonio, Texas |
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