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 Diversity Is Necessary In Intercollegiate Athletics - Jul 01, 2008
posted by: Josh
At its meeting in Phoenix last month, the NCAA Minority Opportunities and Interests Committee (MOIC) finalized a proposal that would hold the Association's membership accountable for following institutional hiring procedures. The proposal still needs to be sponsored by appropriate bodies in each division. Presently, athletics departments aren't required to follow institutional hiring policies, and MOIC is concerned that the lack of adherence to policy has contributed to a dearth of diversity in the coaching and administrative ranks in intercollegiate athletics. We've had many conversations over the past couple of years discussing the paucity of minority head football coaches in the college game. While significant strides have been made with regard to awareness, the results haven't changed significantly since the advent of the BCA hiring report card and the NCAA's Men's and Expert Football Coaching Academies. It's difficult to understand exactly why athletics departments wouldn't adhere to the standards set in place by the institutions. Those hiring procedures have been put in place to ensure diversity and equal opportunities within the academic setting. Why would athletics departments, as an integral part of universities, have their own set of standards? It doesn't make any sense. The good news is that we're seeing change. MOIC has done the right thing to bring athletics departments into accordance with hiring standards, and eventually, we should have more qualified and diverse individuals working in intercollegiate athletics.
CommentsIt is crazy to me that an athletics department isn't required to adhere to university hiring practices. There's a reason intercollegiate athletics is a white boys club. Until we change how decisions are made, there won't be significant progress. I have worked for 4 different universities in athletics and in each one we always had to go through the HR departments policies. I would agree with JM's statement. The key is, 95% of the hires made by the department probably fit in this policy already. But they don't care about someone in Academics or Compliance or Athletic Training or whatever. All they are care is that they don't think that there are enough minorities as Head Coaches for Football and Men's Basketball. If it isn't visible and making money...well, you know... Let's not kid ourselves. Any set of policies and procedures can be manipulated to the point where it would allow a search committee or president to hire the person whom they would really feel more comfortable. So I do not see where such legislation would make a difference. The issue here is that the person that they choose more times than none tends not to be a person of color and who did not live on the same block with them when they were growing up. The funny thing is we do not have a problem manipulating the policies and procedures of a university or college to bring in football players of color. Post a Comment |
  
I believe if the student-athlete has proven him or herself to be a responsible student who has time management then they should choose exactly what they want to do outside of collegiate athletics.
- claudia
   
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