In a report titled “The Faculty Role in the Reform of Intercollegiate Athletics” published in Academe, the American Association of University Professors’ bimonthly magazine, the group urged every college participating in intercollegiate athletics to create a faculty committee to monitor institutional compliance with admissions standards, academic integrity, gender equity in sports and closer faculty monitoring of college athletes’ educational experiences and academic progress.
The University of Wisconsin has been doing this for years through the Athletic Board, the oversight organization for the Athletic Department. The board consists of faculty members, alumni representatives and student officials.
“The board monitors our everyday activities through its various committees,” UW assistant director of athletics Steve Malchow said. “With that organizational structure already in place, we’re pretty much in line with the AAUP requests already.”
Some other universities in the Big Ten conference feel the system of provisions their schools have already implemented concerning the regulation of athletics reflect the concerns of the AAUP, and these universities have no plans to change their policies based on the AAUP’s latest reform.
“We have a Faculty Senate Committee on Athletics already in place and do not have plans to make any changes based upon the AAUP,” said Tim Curley, Pennsylvania State University’s athletic director.
But although UW and PSU each have committees to oversee the athletic programs in each of the schools, the AAUP is demanding more active faculty engagement with more oversight of intercollegiate athletics programs than had previously been the case.
In its report, the AAUP mentioned that the situation was beginning to change. However, the changes were primarily the work of individual faculty members instead of the faculty as a whole; the report says the faculty as a whole has been disengaged or indifferent to the situation.
But at UW, the Athletic Board is very active, and board members are from every division of the university. Bernice Durand of the physics department is the board chair, and there are two faculty representatives. Each member of the board serves on a committee, which meets monthly on a variety of issues. The committees then report to the full board monthly to set, establish and approve policies.
“The faculty that serves on our board are very engaged in the process in helping provide oversight to the division of intercollegiate athletics,” Malchow said.
The AAUP has suggested that faculty senates at Pac 10 and Big Ten universities form a coalition with members of senates at other institutions to promote these recommended practices. They also work together to advance the reform of intercollegiate athletics.
“Our hope is that large numbers of faculty at colleges and universities around the country will become sufficiently concerned to engage with these issues,” AAUP member Robert Kreiser said. “However, we are pleased to see, and so noted in our report, that most of the institutions in the Big Ten have senates which are taking action in this area.”
