Senate Bill 12-13-14
| Bill ID: | 12-13-14 |
| Name: | A proposal for the University of Maryland to join the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA) |
| Proposed: | 09/04/2012 |
| Sponsor: | Eric Kasischke, Faculty, Department of Geographical Sciences |
| Proposal: | Over the past several years, UMCP has experienced dramatic changes to its Department of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) driven by the need to bring expenses in alignment with revenues (e.g., balancing the budget). This process not only highlighted the need for implementing more realistic approaches for reviewing the financial state of the DIA, but also stimulated extensive discussions between the Administration and the Senate Executive Committee on the role of intercollegiate athletics at UMCP, as well as discussions between Senate leadership and the Athletic Director on his desire to continue to expand efforts to integrate the student athletes and staff of the DIA into the University community. As a result of these recent events, during the 2011/2012 academic year, the Senate Executive Committee resumed the practice of scheduling an annual meeting with the Chair of the Athletic Council and also met with the Athletic Director in order to provide a review of ongoing issues associated with intercollegiate athletics at UMCP. The University's Athletic Council also provides a means for University faculty and staff to advise the President on policy matters affecting intercollegiate athletics on an ongoing basis, including providing faculty input and participation required by the ACC and NCAA. This Council includes faculty and staff representatives elected by the University Senate. While UMCP controls the operation of intercollegiate athletics on campus, many of the forces driving the operation of athletics at major universities are externally driven, in particular the continuous rise in the size of television revenues for broadcast rights, and the demand by alumni, students, and others for the fielding of top-ranked teams, especially in football and basketball. This combination has resulted in rapidly rising costs for intercollegiate athletics, in particular in costs associated with hiring and retaining coaches and providing state-of-the-art athletic facilities. In many cases, Athletic Departments have developed a large degree of autonomy in their operations, where in extreme cases, the lack of oversight has resulted in severe repercussions for the University. There have been efforts directed towards identifying the reforms needed for the nation's intercollegiate athletic system, most notably, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which issued its latest report in June 2010 (see <a href="http://www.knightcommission.org/" target="_blank">http://www.knightcommission.org/</a>). In 2003, the Commission On Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA) was formed to provide a forum for representatives of senate faculties for developing and supporting strategies for reforms in intercollegiate athletics (see <a href="http://blogs.comm.psu.edu/thecoia/" target="_blank">http://blogs.comm.psu.edu/thecoia/</a>). The members of COIA are restricted to the 115 members of the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). There are currently 59 members of COIA, with five from the ACC. I am recommending that the University of Maryland apply for COIA membership. Over the past year, President Loh has expressed his support for reform of intercollegiate athletics, but has also noted that formulating and implementing such reforms will require activities at the national scale, especially from FBS institutes. Joining COIA will provide the opportunity for the University Senate to participate in discussions and activities that are needed for this reform to occur. |
| Active? | No |
Status
| Status: | Completed |
| Completed On: | 09/18/2013 |
History
| Status: | Complete |
| Reviewer: | Senate |
| Received: | 2013-09-11 |
| Decision Date: | 2013-09-18 |
| Decision Due By: | 2013-09-18 |
| Decision: | The report was presented to the Senate as an informational item. |
| Related Files: |
| Status: | Complete |
| Reviewer: | Senate Executive Committee (SEC) |
| Received: | 2013-08-22 |
| Decision Date: | 2013-08-29 |
| Decision Due By: | 2013-08-29 |
| Decision: | To place the item on the September 18th Senate agenda as an informational item. |
| Actions: | Voted to plate the item on the September 18th Senate agenda as an informational item. |
| Next Step: | Senate Review |
| Related Files: |
| Status: | Complete |
| Reviewer: | Campus Affairs Committee |
| Received: | 2012-10-24 |
| Decision Date: | 2013-04-30 |
| Decision Due By: | 2013-03-29 |
| Decision: | The committee decided to send a report to the SEC for the August 2013 meeting. |
| Actions: | The Campus Affairs Committee reviewed the charge at its meeting on November 15, 2012. The committee reviewed the charge further in the spring semester of 2013. The committee reviewed the charge and brief initial research on February 15, 2013. The committee discussed COIA with the chair of the Athletics Council and heard from representatives from the Department of Athletics. The committee conducted research on peer institutions and discussed the charge further at its meeting on April 30, 2013. The committee voted to send a report forward to the SEC on its work. |
| Next Step: | SEC Review |
| Related Files: |
| Status: | Complete |
| Reviewer: | Senate Executive Committee (SEC) |
| Received: | 2012-09-21 |
| Decision Date: | 2012-10-17 |
| Decision: | The SEC voted to charge the Campus Affairs Committee with reviewing the proposal. |
| Next Step: | Campus Affairs Committee Review |
| Related Files: |