MINUTES OF THE

NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION

DIVISION III MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE

NCAA National Office June 28-29, 2004

Indianapolis, Indiana

Participants:

Tim Downes, California Institute of Technology, chair

Kristen Hall, Bard College

Del Malloy, Salve Regina University

Chris Martin, College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin

Mark Molesworth, University of Wisconsin, Platteville

Richard Strockbine, University of Dallas

Myra Fishback, NCAA, recording secretary

Leah Nilsson, NCAA

Susan Peal, NCAA

Bill Mandel, Western New England College was unable to attend.

Anne Steele, Muskingum College; Bridget Belgiovine, NCAA; and Dan Dutcher, NCAA, were in attendance for portions of the meeting.

[Note: These minutes contain only actions taken (formal votes or stated "sense of the meeting") in accordance with NCAA policy regarding minutes of all Association entities. While certain items on the committee's agenda were acted on at various times throughout the meeting, all final actions within a given topic are combined in these minutes for convenience of reference.]

Monday, June 28

The NCAA Division III Membership Committee meeting was called to order at 8:10 a.m. by the chair, Mr. Downes. All members were present as noted above.

1. Review May 27 Teleconference Minutes. The committee reviewed the minutes from the May 27 teleconference.

It was VOTED

"That the minutes of the May 27, 2004, teleconference be approved as distributed."

2. Membership Committee Roster. The NCAA Division III Nominating Committee has reopened the pool for more nominees in order to fill the vacancy of Carolyn Hunter.

3. Exploratory Membership Issues. The committee reviewed the list of exploratory institutions that submitted a corresponding membership fee and reviewed the agenda for the fall exploratory meeting. The committee recommended that the agenda include an item to review the role and duties of the Membership Committee.

4. Provisional Membership Issues. The committee reviewed the provisional and reclassifying membership education materials and recommended the following amendments:

a. Provisional orientation agenda and PowerPoint. This agenda will be reordered, and will include a review of the role of the chief executive officer (CEO) in the legislative process, a discussion of current Division III issues, and a question and answer session for all attendees. The format of the session will be altered to include all participants for the main agenda, and directors of athletics will stay for an additional rules-education session. Finally, each committee member will review the manual and submit additional bylaws to highlight for CEOs in the orientation session.

b. Student-athlete orientation materials. The committee reviewed the student-athlete orientation agenda and audiovisual presentation. To make the presentation more relevant to student-athletes the video will be edited to focus more on the compliance forms and to scale back the information on the governance structure, legislative process, and facts and figures. The background of the video will be made Division III specific. The committee also reviewed the Division II amateurism pre-enrollment guide to view professional quality audiovisual formatting. For the 2004-05 academic year, a pilot professional production will be distributed to the full membership to review the summary of regulations. A memorandum will be sent to announce this tool and the date it will become available. For the 2005-06 year, a professional production will be made and will include information for the NCAA Division III Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, faculty athletics representatives and other important constituents.

c. Campus visit agenda and materials. The committee reviewed the campus visit agenda and supplementary materials, and assessed each form for Division III relevance. It will be clearly explained that the forms are to be used as guides and are not required forms. Prior to distributing the forms to the active membership, feedback about the scope and content of the forms will be sought from the leadership of the Division III Commissioners Association, the National Association of Division III Athletics Association and the Division III Independents Association. These groups will be asked if their institutions use any other compliance forms that would be useful in the provisional membership program.

d. Preliminary compliance assessment. The committee reviewed the preliminary program assessment and noted a title change as well as its desire to change the section headings to parallel the headings used in the NCAA Institutional Self-Study Guide (ISSG).

e. Final program assessment. The committee discussed the format of the final program assessment, noting that its content will be based on each institution’s preliminary assessment.

5. Discussion of Provisional Membership Issues.

a. Susan Peal reviewed the educational documents included in the provisional membership educational program. The committee approved the following documents:

(1) Provisional orientation agenda and PowerPoint.

(2) Student-athlete orientation materials.

(3) Campus visit agenda and materials.

(4) Preliminary compliance assessment.

b. Ms. Peal provided the committee with an overview of the educational program that will be performed during the Division III year 2 provisional membership campus visit. The campus visit program was approved.

c. Myra Fishback presented the new version of the Division III membership Web site. With recommendations from the committee, the Division III membership Web site was approved.

d. Ms. Fishback discussed with the committee the relationship of NCAA Division III Proposal No. 56 and the requirement in NCAA Bylaw 3.6.1.2.1.2. The committee discussed the timing for compliance with the annual financial aid report requirement.

It was VOTED

“That during the second year of provisional membership (and each subsequent year), a provisional member must complete the Division III financial aid report.”

6. Review of Provisional Members.

a. Huntingdon College. The committee recommended that Huntingdon submit additional information in order to determine if the institution is in full compliance with all Division III regulations. Full compliance is required by the provisional membership process, inasmuch as the institution is in its fourth year of provisional membership. The committee noted a discrepancy in what the institution reported concerning the sport of cross country and information available on the Web site from another institution. Therefore, the committee could not verify that the institution met the five sport/three season requirement. The institution will review via teleconference once the committee has received the appropriate documentation to render a decision regarding the institution’s status.

It was VOTED

“That the decision to declare Huntingdon College an active member be tabled until review of requested documentation.”

b. Provisional member annual reports – active membership. The committee recommended the following institutions be granted active membership status. On its review of the provisional institutions’ annual reports, the Membership Committee agreed that each institution had conducted its athletics program in full compliance with NCAA regulations and should be granted active membership.

It was VOTED

“That the following institutions be granted active membership.”

(1) Alverno College.

(2) Transylvania University.

c. Provisional member annual reports – third year of provisional membership. The committee recommended that Spelman College be moved into the third year of provisional membership.

It was VOTED

“That Spelman College be moved into the third year of provisional membership.”

d. Provisional member annual reports – second year of provisional membership. The committee recommended that the following institutions be moved into the second year of provisional membership.

It was VOTED

“That the following institutions be moved into the second year of provisional

membership.”

(1) Finlandia University.

(2) University of Maine at Presque Isle.

(3) Mount Mary College.

(4) Penn State Berks-Lehigh Valley College.

(5) University of Texas at Tyler.

e. Reclassification request – second year of reclassification. The committee recommended that University of Minnesota, Morris, be moved into the second year of reclassification.

It was VOTED

“That University of Minnesota, Morris, be moved into the second year of reclassification.”

7. Review of Membership Issues.

a. Green Mountain College. Green Mountain submitted an application to reclassify to Division III to begin in the 2004-05 academic year. The committee approved that application.

It was VOTED

“That Green Mountain College begin reclassification in the 2004-05 academic year.”

b. Hartwick College. Leah Nilsson informed the committee that Hartwick will retain its multidivisional classification in the sports of men’s soccer and women’s water polo. The application submitted to revoke multidivisional status has been withdrawn by the institution.

c. Review of 2004-05 provisional member applications. The committee accepted and approved the applications of the following institutions that will begin the provisional member educational process in 2006-07. These institutions have served the exploratory year and will be corresponding members for 2004-05 and 2005-06.

It was VOTED

“To accept the following applications for Division III membership:

(1) Johnson and Wales University, Denver;

(2) Lincoln Christian College and Seminary;

(3) Lyndon State College;

(4) Saint Vincent College;

(5) Seton Hill University; and

(6) State University of New York at Morrisville."

d. North Eastern Athletic Conference. One application was submitted for Division III conference membership. The committee reviewed and approved the application of the North Eastern Athletic Conference. The membership committee noted that Purchase College, State University of New York, will not be recognized as a member until the institution enters provisional membership.

It was VOTED

“To grant the North Eastern Athletic Conference member conference status.”

8. Division III Active Member Education.

a. Ms. Fishback reviewed the participant numbers for the 2004 NCAA Regional Seminars noting that for the third consecutive year the number of attendees from Division III institutions increased. The Division III rules education survey was distributed via e-mail on June 10, 2004, and to date there have been 362 respondents. Further discussion regarding enhancements for the 2005 NCAA Regional Seminars will be considered when survey results become available.

b. The committee reviewed and approved the 2004-05 NCAA Division III Rules Test.

c. The committee reviewed and approved the 2004-05 ISSG. It was recommended that the ISSG be accessible on the Web site as an rtf document and that Bylaw 6.3.1 be updated to reflect the sections of the ISSG. The committee determined that there is no authority to provide relief if the institution does not complete the ISSG by the deadline. Institutions should continue to self report late submission of the ISSG.

d. Ms. Peal reviewed for the committee a document that considers the role of the committee to educate active membership. Ms. Peal described a comprehensive annual education program. Quarterly segments of the education program were explained and feedback will be sought from several groups to enhance delivery of this educational program for active members. Communication between the national office and various professional groups (e.g., Faculty Athletics Representatives Association, National Association of Division III Athletics Administrators, College Sports Information Directors of America, etc.) will occur to determine how this program can best meet the overarching interests of the membership (e.g., rules education as opposed to professional development). It was noted that on finalizing the educational plan, the program will be communicated to the membership at the 2005 NCAA Convention.

[Note: The meeting recessed at 4:17 p.m.]

Tuesday, June 29

The meeting reconvened and was called to order at 8:15 a.m. All members were present as noted above.

9. Membership Requirements.

a. Contest and participant minimums. A memorandum was forwarded to the sports committees for feedback regarding sports-sponsorship contest and participant minimums. Included in the discussion of this item was the possible alignment of Bylaws 17 and 20 (dates of competition vs. contests). Both of these items will be discussed at a later date once the committee receives the requested feedback from the championships sports committees.

b. Becker College – Five-Sport/Three-Season Waiver. Becker informed the committee that the institution did meet the five-sport/three-season requirement in 2003-04 and thus would not need the waiver that was granted to the institution for the 2003-04 year.

c. NCAA Constitution 3.6 Reformatting. Changing the format of Constitution 3.6 is on-going and this item will be tabled for discussion during the winter meeting.

10. Discussion of the Update on the Future of Division III.

a. Ms. Nilsson and Dan Dutcher provided information regarding the future of Division III as the plan moves into phase II and the implementation of Proposal No. 66. The committee was provided an in-depth summary of the goals, charge, proposed focus of year one (including a focus on membership growth, membership diversity, and institutional and conference autonomy) and a timetable for pursuing completion of phase II for 2004 and 2005.

b. Ms. Nilsson revealed the results of the conference policy survey. The survey was used to provide a snapshot of the legislative autonomy used by conferences. Staff will work with the research staff to finalize the analysis of the survey.

11. Review of Division III and Membership Committee Updated Strategic Plans. The committee reviewed the new format of its strategic plan, where committee actions are embedded into a master planning document. That master document exhibits the relationship between the Association-wide, Division III and individual committee strategic plans. Updates were made to the committee level plan.

12. Other Discussion Item.

· Richard Strockbine discussed the acceleration of the education program for provisional or reclassifying members. It was noted that some institutions may exhibit a readiness for Division III active membership quickly. It could be an incentive for an institution to progress through the educational program via a possible waiver opportunity. This topic will be tabled until June 2005.

13. Set Future In-Person Meeting and Teleconference Schedule.

a. 9 a.m. Central time, July 15.

b. 9 a.m. Central time, August 26.

c. 9 a.m. Central time, September 30.

d. 9 a.m. Central time, October 28.

e. 10 a.m. Eastern time, December 2.

f. January 25-26, 2005, in-person meeting.

14. Adjournment. The meeting was adjourned at 2 p.m.

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