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

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INTRODUCTION

Responsible, well coordinated governance of athletics at the campus level is of central concern to the NCAA and its member institutions.  The day to day operation of athletics programs is the responsibility of athletics directors and coaches.  A century of experience has shown that many strong forces from both within and outside of athletics departments make athletics governance uniquely difficult in a university setting.  For this reason, the engagement in athletics governance of the three major participants in campus governance, the administration, the governing board, and the faculty, is essential to the effective management of athletics.  In this regard, presidents must take a leading executive role, governing boards must provide oversight and support in accord with their ultimate responsibility for the institution, and faculty must engage their academic perspective to help ensure that the institutional investment in athletics remains in the interest of the primary academic mission of the institution.  All three participants in campus governance must work in coordination to support athletics directors and coaches in ensuring the proper role of athletics on campus.

This document focuses on the faculty role in campus athletics governance.  It articulates a set of principles, proposes a set of uniform rules, and discusses in detail guidelines that, when adapted and applied by individual campuses, can help ensure the proper function of this faculty role.  In focusing on the faculty role, this document assumes the leading role of campus presidents, the ultimate authority of the institutional governing board, and practical centrality of athletics directors and coaches. 

The faculty role in campus athletics governance is generally exercised through three different organs:  the Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR), the Campus Athletics Board (CAB), and the Faculty Governance Body (FGB), the last of which refers to the elected representative council of faculty that legislates all campus-level governance matters assigned to the campus faculty, often called the “Faculty Senate.”  This document is concerned with the nature and function of the FAR and CAB, and with those activities of the FGB that bear on athletics governance.

The basic premise of this document is that all three faculty entities must be well configured to work together in order for the faculty to exercise its proper role in campus athletics governance.  It discusses, in sequence: 1) the nature and role of the FAR; 2) the nature and role of the CAB; 3) the role of the FGB.

Structures and traditions of athletics governance at schools vary.  This document recognizes this fact and stresses the need to adapt its guidelines to local circumstances.  Detailed guidelines are not meant to be prescriptive for all campuses; they are included because this document is intended as a resource that campuses can consult when assessing whether their athletics governance structures are satisfactory or could be improved.  Local faculty are best able to design governance structures for their campuses, but that all schools are helped when successful ideas are shared.  However, the specific forms listed here represent more than an inventory of successful approaches – they are recommended as best practices, and the purpose of this document is to help campuses strengthen athletics governance.

Our understanding of governance issues and best practices is not static, and this document should not be seen as an exhaustive and unchanging blueprint.  It will be subject to revision in future iterations as new circumstances and new knowledge arise.