|
Sept. 20, 2010
Documents for NCAA Certification Public Forum COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Deborah A. Yow, Director of Athletics, announced today that the University of Maryland will begin an 18-month long, campus-wide effort to study its athletics program as part of the NCAA Division I athletics certification program. Specific areas the study will cover are academic integrity, governance and commitment to rules compliance and commitment to gender, diversity and student-athlete well-being. While academic accreditation is common in colleges and universities, this program focuses solely on certification of athletics programs. Following a two-year pilot project, the NCAA Division I membership overwhelmingly supported the program and its standards at the 1993 NCAA Convention. The three options of certification status are: certified; certified with conditions and not certified. The University of Maryland completed its first certification self-study in 1995 and its second in 2000. In both reviews, the university's department of athletics was fully certified. At the 1997 Convention, the NCAA Division I membership voted to change the frequency of athletics certification from once every five years to once every 10 years. Thus, the current self-study will be the third in the certification process for Maryland. The athletics certification program's purpose is to help ensure integrity in the institution's athletics operations. Institutions will benefit by increasing campus-wide awareness and knowledge of the athletics program, confirming its strengths and developing plans to improve areas of concern. The committee responsible for the study will include Dr. Jeffrey C. Huskamp, VP and CIO and Chair of Maryland's Certification Steering Committee. In addition, various members of the institution's faculty and staff, athletics department personnel, student-athletes and boosters comprise the steering and subcommittees which will conduct the review. When Maryland has concluded its study, an external team of reviewers will conduct a three-day evaluation visit on campus in Fall 2010. Those reviewers will be peers from other colleges, universities and/or conference offices and report their findings to the NCAA Division I Committee on Athletics Certification. The Committee on Athletics Certification will then determine the institution's certification status and announce the decision publicly in February 2011.
NCAA CERTIFICATION TIMELINE February 26, 2009 March, 2009 April 24, 2009 April 30, 2009 May 14, 2009 May 21, 2009 June 2, 2009 June 12, 2009 June 15 - 30, 2009 July 1 - 7, 2009 August 1 - 17, 2009 August 19, 2009 August 25, 2009 September 1 - 30, 2009 October 15, 2009 October 15-30, 2009 November - December 2009 December 11, 2009 December 15 - January 15, 2010 January 15 - February 16, 2010 February 17, 2010 February 18 - March 23, 2010 March 24, 2010 April, 2010 April 15, 2010 April 30, 2010 May 1 - June 30, 2010 July 15 - August 15, 2010 August 16 - September 15, 2009 September 15 - November 19, 2010 November 19 - December 6, 2010 December 6 - 16, 2010 December 17, 2010 February, 2011 WRITTEN PLAN FOR 2009-10 NCAA THIRD-CYCLE CERTIFICATION As mandated by the NCAA THIRD-CYCLE Certification Program, the University of Maryland at College Park is submitting its Tentative Written Plan for the self-study of its intercollegiate athletics program. As instructed, this plan concisely covers the scope of our review and follows guidelines provided by the NCAA. A. Objectives Related to the Study -- Goals and second-cycle institutional plans for improvement: Dr. C. D. Mote, Jr., President, has charged the Steering Committee by noting that "athletic certification is intended to help the athletic enterprise in the same way that academic certification helps our academic program." Dr. Mote observed that athletics programs, as well as great academic programs, can be improved by self-study and he encouraged the subcommittees to examine thoroughly the items of study. He indicated that the operating principles were important indicators of a successful athletic program and that the general public would be interested in our assessment as to the extent of compliance with the principles. B. Major Components of the Self Study--Appointment and Responsibilities of the Steering Committee: 1. The membership of the Steering Committee and three mandated sub-committees has been appointed by President Mote. The Chair of the Steering Committee, appointed by President Mote, is Dr. Jeffrey C. Huskamp, Vice President and Chief Information Officer for the University. Dr. Huskamp is a member of the President's Cabinet for campus governance, is the chair of the university's Information Technology Council, and serves on campus financial and facilities committees. He holds responsibility for academic computing, administrative computing, enterprise systems, networking, IT policy and planning, telecommunications, IT security, and user support. Dr. Huskamp is also the University of Maryland's executive representative to Internet2, primary representative to EDUCAUSE, member of the Governing Board for the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads GigaPoP, and member of the Coalition for Networked Information. Dr. Huskamp has more than 30 years of experience in information technology, software development, high-performance computing, and high-performance networking in the private, government, not-for-profit, and research arenas. He earned his doctorate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley with his thesis in computer security. Dr. Huskamp has been given clear authority from the President to spearhead the third-cycle certification process, as well as ready access to the President for third-cycle certification issues. 2. (a, b) Attachment #1 includes the names and titles of all steering committee and subcommittee members and includes the University President (Dr. Mote), Faculty Athletic Representative (Dr. Wellford), Director of Athletics (Deborah A. Yow), Senior Woman Administrator (Kathleen Worthington), Student-athlete representatives and the Athletics Certification liaison (Kathleen Worthington). (c) The persons appointed represent a broad cross-section of campus personnel involved in university administration, athletics governance, athletics programs, and the provision of services to the program. The appointees are faculty, students, administrators, student-athletes, and leaders of external support organizations. Several athletics administrators have been appointed to each committee to facilitate understanding of the program and gathering of data. 3. (a) The steering committee and subcommittee have been charged by President Mote to carry out our review consistent with the prescriptions of the Handbook and Self-Study Instrument, with particular attention given to "plans for improvement" from the 2000 review. (b) To facilitate data collection in a timely manner, each subcommittee met in June 2009, to review their respective self-study items and to indentify the data required to address each item. Kathy Worthington completed minutes following each subcommittee meeting which identified the data requests for each self study item and the University employee responsible for assimilating that data. Kathy Worthington then circulated minutes to all subcommittee members and staff responsible for data collection. A timeline was established that all data be submitted to Ms. Worthington, via electronic format whenever possible, by August 25, 2009, so that Ms. Worthington may have data organized and distributed to respective subcommittees for meetings in mid to late September 2009. A secure website is also being developed so that committee members may have access to data and reports to facilitate the sharing, reviewing and editing of data and the self-study responses. (c) The University established a pattern for communications in its previous self-study which allowed for input from various internal and external constituencies. This pattern will be followed again and will include a press release on the front-end announcing the commencement of the review; notices and ads announcing open meetings for general input in campus news vehicles (FYI announcements, the administration's daily email announcement vehicle, the Diamondback, as the student newspaper), athletic study halls, and McKeldin library; and, press releases announcing the beginning of the review, inviting public comment and announcement of the final certification decision. (d) The schedule for the review (attached) identifies the dates for formal input from the sub-committees to the steering committee. The Steering Committee has established the expectation that all input from sub-committees will be written and formally acted upon. The same standard will apply to the work of the Steering Committee. The roles of the sub-committees are to collect relevant data, examine thoroughly the self-study items, evaluate program performance against the operating principles, establish means for community input including hearing from coaches and athletes, develop plans for improvement based upon the findings of the examination and evaluation, and, prepare draft reports. The Steering Committee shall review the draft reports of the sub-committees, communicate regularly with the sub-committees, and develop the final report. (e) The attached timeline outlines how the self study process will be carried out through a well-developed schedule of meetings and self study draft reviews. In addition, a website will be established which will allow for the timely and thoughtful review and editing of self study documents by the steering committee, subcommittees and, when appropriate, external audiences. (f) As SWA and Report Coordinator, Kathy Worthington will be will be involved in scheduling all meetings and, with adequate secretarial support, ensure all necessary meeting support services are provided. She will attend as many meetings as possible, and will prepare the minutes and attendance reports in a timely manner, with assistance from the committee chairs. 4. Campus Contact: The campus contact to the NCAA will be Kathleen R. Worthington, Sr. Assoc. AD/SWA. Ms. Worthington is a member of ICA's senior staff and has been employed at the University for over 10 years. As such, she was involved with the second-cycle certification and clearly understands her responsibilities in this process. 5. Shane Lyons, Assoc. Commissioner, has been designated as the Atlantic Coast Conference liaison to our review. The University does not intend at this time to utilize outside consultants for this process. 6. Outline and schedule: Attached is a copy of the preliminary schedule for completing the self-study. It seeks to end the review prior to the end of this academic year so as to maximize the availability and input from the campus. Thus, the major effort of the self-study will occur between September and May. Opportunities for community interactions will be formally announced and scheduled at times and places convenient for participation. The community will be informed of the self-study by a press release. 7. The report coordinator is Kathleen Worthington, Sr. Assoc. AD/SWA. She will gather written input from the committees as she carries out the task of writing the final report. Work-related needs of collecting data have been identified and met. Work will be done in a manner consistent with the expectations as to format and composition medium set forth in the Handbook and the Instrument. Opportunities for community interactions will be formally announced and scheduled at times and places convenient for participation. In addition, the community will be informed of the self-study by a press release in September 2009 and allowed, when appropriate, to view documents related to the self study process and provide feedback through a website established by the University of Maryland Department of Athletics. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
