Athletes' rate of graduation discussed

The fall meeting of the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association (FARA) might not have made significant changes in the NCAA, but it certainly made progress for many substantial changes in the coming years. \nAccording to a November 5 NCAA posting on their Web site, the goal of the meeting was to "focus on ways to enhance the faculty's role in intercollegiate athletics, as well as ways faculty might address issues raised in the most recent Knight Foundation Commission on Intercollegiate athletics report".\nThe forum, which was held in San Diego November 15-17, gave panel discussions to examine the latest Knight Commission reports, which "challenges the NCAA to curtail commercialism in big-time sports and encourages institutions to refocus their athletics programs on the educational mission," according to the article. \nIU business professor Bill Perkins attended the forum as IU's faculty representative to the Big Ten and NCAA. Perkins said the meeting, although important and informative, was only discussions about reform and eligibility, not a decision-making forum. \n"We had some great discussions, and I was a part of a panel, but there were no decisions made. That will be done at a later date," Perkins said. \nPerkins said the forum's main discussions were detailed to discuss amateur issues for pre-collegiate athletes and a proposal for a tougher degree requirement policy for continuing student athletes.\nHe also said the proposal was established to adopt a more strict policy for continuing athletes' degree requirements, which he said are not strong throughout the NCAA. Perkins gave a hypothetical situation of the current state of athletes' quest for graduation, stating that currently many athletes graduate with only 50 percent of their degrees finished. \nThe new proposal would demand a 15 percent increase for student athletes requirements, but such a proposal is still in the works. Perkins' hypothetical situation highlighted that current athletes in their first two years only finish 48 hours in contrast to many students 60 hours. \nThe NCAA policy is looking to conform to a stronger standard, such as the Big Ten's high eligibility standards Perkins stated. In conjunction with this reform that was discussed, many colleges are looking to change financial aid standards for student athletes. \nUnder this still preliminary change, athletic departments will have their own discretion to whom they award scholarships. Currently many athletic scholarships are given without thought to the athletes scholastic futures in mind. The council wants to know where the line is drawn with financial aid for athletes. \nThe next item for discussion was the still pending issue of amateurism. Richard Weinberg, professor of child development and faculty representative to the Big Ten and NCAA for the University of Minnesota, said the topic is still continuing and controversial. \nThe forum's intent is to redefine the meaning of an "amateur" and the ways that students should be treated when they are being recruited.\n"The word 'amateur' is very loaded, there are many different opinions. Many international students come into college after being involved in professional sports overseas. We are trying to fix that and contain that more domestically," Weinberg said.\nThe amateur issues is still being voted on.\nIn addition to those discussions, other topics that were discussed were time demands placed on student-athletes and the amount of power given at the conference level in the NCAA's federated governance structure. \nThe next FARA meeting is scheduled for early January in Indianapolis.