COMMITTEE:          University Athletic Committee

 

MEETING DATE:    January 17,  2008

PERSON PRESIDING:        Mike Felts

 

REGULAR MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:        M. Felts, A. Rodriquez, M. Moore, S. Ajose, R. Kulsher, Stacy Altman

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:    , D. Dosser, N. Boyce, N. Mize, Nick Floyd, R. Thompson, T Metcalf, G. Overton

 

OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE:  Keri Brockett (for B Congleton), Jennifer Bonner

 

Actions of Meeting

Agenda Item:             November Minutes

Action Taken:            The November minutes were approved.

 

Agenda Item: Report from Athletics Director

 

Nick Floyd reported for Terry Holland who had to be out of town.  Floyd reported:

 

That the Hawaii Bowl had been great experience for the players.  They were exposed to a culture that many would have never had the opportunity to experience.  The game also brought a good deal of general, positive publicity to the University.  It should provide the athletics program with good momentum going forward.

 

The Pirates will open the 2008 football season in Charlotte at Bank of America Stadium versus Va Tech.

 

ECU finished the 2007 football season 56th nationally in regards to home football attendance by averaging just over 41,000 per game.  In CUSA only CFU was higher and of non-BCS schools only Hawaii, Utah and BYU reported higher attendance.

 

Stated that he felt community services by our student-athletes was outstanding.  This has been a point of emphasis for the program.  During the 2006-07 year athletes performed 4018 hours of service.  This academic year the goal is 4100 hours.  This number has steadily increased over the past five years.

 

For Fall semester the mean GPA for ECU student athletes was 2.85 with 50% having GPA’s above 3.00.   One hundred, ninety-eight athletes earned academic honors.

 

Professor Dosser expressed concerns about SMU’s paying their new football coach $2 million per year.  Mr. Floyd responded that salaries continued to escalate posing challenges for all concerned.

 

Agenda Item:             Report of Faculty Athletics Representative David Dosser

 

                                    Dr. Dosser praised football player Joe Sloan pointing out that his ability to handle a high snap enabled to game winning field goal to be kicked at the Hawaii Bowl.  Dr Dosser noted that Mr. Sloan currently holds a 4.0 GPA. 

 

                                    Dr. Dosser surrendered the rest of his time to Jennifer Bonner

 

 

Agenda Item:             Report from Jennifer Bonner, Coordinator of the tutoring program

 

                                    Ms. Bonner was asked to report as a result of the incident involving a tutor at Florida State University.  The tutor provided answers to test questions for student athletes (and other students) enrolled in and online course.  The result was the suspension of more than 20 players from FSU’s bowl game.  Further action in the matter is pending.

 

                                    Ms. Bonner reported that she currently employed 103 student tutors.  Request for tutors have increased substantially in recent years from 114 requests in fall 2005 to 400 requests in fall 2007.

 

                                    Ms Bonner reported that all tutors go through training that includes material on academic integrity.  She also pointed out that the contract tutors sign include stipulations regarding academic integrity.  She also pointed out that all tutors are good students (a 3.0 GPA is required but most are much higher) and that they would be risking their own student status if they were involved in any form of cheating.  The job descriptions tutors receive are very specific about appropriate aid they can provide.  Tutors are not permitted to be present if students are working on online quizzes.  Tutors are also networked with faculty members who provide guidance regarding the appropriate role for tutors in aiding students when writing projects or doing computer-programming projects.  Policies also exist that preclude students who have personal relationships with a student-athlete to serve as his/her tutor.

 

                                    Two specific challenges the tutoring program faces are facilities and staffing.  There can be a need to find space for between 150-300 tutors and student athletes during a single study hall period.  A number of facilities are used including several rooms in Ward and the press box at the baseball stadium.  Pay for tutors is $7/hour for undergrads and $10/hour for grad students.  The fact that there is not consistent schedule or hours is a disincentive to some potentials tutors.

 

                                   

Agenda Item:             Appointment of the ad hoc gender equity committee

 

Action Taken:            Dr. Felts proposed a slate of members to serve to revise the university’s athletics gender equity plan.  Nick Floyd suggested that Gary Overton be added to that committee.  With that addition the voting members unanimously approved the roster (see attachment A).

           

Agenda Item:             Other Business

 

                                    ECU SGA President Keri Brockett reported that there would be an SGA sponsored event prior to the 1/19 basketball game to celebrate the football team’s bowl victory.

 

The committee then adjourned.  The academic integrity subcommittee met. 

 

The basketball team’s improved academic performance was documented.  This is important in light of the NCAA APR sanction already in place against the program.  A table documenting this progress is attached (Attachment B).

 

Concerns were noted regarding the performance of freshmen football players and the women’s track team.  Nita Boyce will report at a future meeting concerning causes for these difficulties and measures being taken to rectify them.  Attachment C contains aggregate data comparing academic performance of teams for the last five fall semesters.

 

 

Next Meeting: TBD

Submitted by:  Mike Felts (for Cal Christian)


Attachment A

 

 

Cal Christian

Associate Professor, College of Business

 

 

 

Stacy Altman

Assistant Professor, College of Health & Human Performance

Nancy Mize

Director, Recreation Services & Student Activities

 

 

 

Rosie Thompson

Associate Director of Athletics

 

 

 

Tracey Kee

Head Coach, Women’s Softball

 

 

 

Alexandra Smith

Captain, ECU Women’s Tennis Team

 

 

 

Nick Floyd

Executive Director of Athletics

 

 

 

Gary Overton

Director of Internal Affairs, Athletics Department

 

 

 

David Dosser

NCAA Faculty Representative

 

 

 

Michael Felts

Chair, University Athletics Committee