Campus Athletics Governance, the Faculty Role:  Principles, Proposed Rules, and Guidelines

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3.  The Role of the Faculty Governance Body

At many schools, low faculty interest in athletics governance issues has led to minimal or no involvement of FGBs in athletics governance; at others, higher faculty interest has combined with an absence of structure for faculty involvement, and created tension between faculty and administration.  Maintaining adequate FGB attentiveness to athletics affairs can add great strength to campus athletics governance.  Faculty have a unique focus on the institution’s academic mission and are relatively free from the types of pressures that may create discrepancies between athletics decision making and academic priorities and values.  It is in the interests of campuses, and of the NCAA as a consortium of schools, that faculty, through their FGBs, fulfill basic responsibilities in athletics governance.

Efficient exercise of faculty responsibilities requires structures that will encourage and make it feasible for faculty to be adequately informed about athletics administration to fulfill its governance responsibilities.  The most effective way to ensure this is through FGB involvement in the appointment and review of FARs and the appointment of faculty members of the CAB, and through regular reports of specified form submitted to the FBC or to its executive committee by the FAR and the CAB chair.