II.
VISION STATEMENT

 

Division III will be a dynamic and engaging group of colleges, universities and conferences of varying sizes and missions committed to an environment that encourages and supports diversity, values fairness and equity, and places the highest priority on the overall educational experience of the student-athlete in the conduct of intercollegiate athletics.

 

III.
MISSION STATEMENT

 

The primary purpose of NCAA and Division III is to assist and involve all con­stituents (presidents, faculty athletics representatives, athletics administrators, coaches and student-athletes) in developing and maintaining consistent, equi­table competitive opportunities and to ensure that our student-athletes' athlet­ics endeavors are conducted in an environment that fosters the successful completion of all students' academic programs.

 

To achieve this end, Division III institutions and conferences:

 

1.         Place special importance on the impact of athletics on the participants rather than on the spectators and place greater emphasis on the internal constituency (students, alumni, institutional personnel) than on the gen­eral public and its entertainment needs;

 

2.         Award no athletically related financial aid to any students;

 

3.         Encourage the development of sportsmanship and positive societal atti­tudes in all constituents, including student-athletes, coaches, administra­tive personnel and spectators;

 

4.         Encourage participation by maximizing the number and variety of athletics opportunities for their students;

 

5.         Assure that the actions of coaches and administrators exhibit fairness, openness and honesty in their relationships with student-athletes;

 

6.         Assure that athletics participants are not treated differently from other members of the student body;

 

7.         Assure that athletics programs support the institution's educational mis­sion by financing, staffing and controlling the programs through the same general procedures as other departments of the institution;

 

8.         Provide equitable athletics opportunities for males and females and give equal emphasis to men's and women's sports;

 

9.         Support ethnic and gender diversity for all constituents.

 

10.       Give primary emphasis to regional in-season and conference competition; and

 

11.       Support student-athletes in their efforts to reach high levels of athletics performance, which may include opportunities for participation in national championships, by providing all teams with adequate facilities, competent coaching and appropriate competitive opportunities.