COMMITTEE: University Athletics Committee

MEETING DATE: February 3, 2009

PERSON PRESIDING: Mike Felts

REGULAR MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:

Mike Felts, Rosina Chia, Scott Below, Cal Christian

EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS IN ATTENDANCE:

Bradley Congleton, Stacey Altman, Tim Metcalf, Joe Luczkovich, Austin Bunch, Nick Floyd, Nita Boyce,

OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE:

Terry Holland, Gary Overton, Rosie Thompson, Tyler Richardson

Committee Actions: None

Reports Heard:

Terry Holland/Nick Floyd (Athletics):

• While athletics does not rely on state appropriated funds the current economic situation will likely impact fundraising and ticket sales. Even if no impact occurred public perception requires that athletic departments be prudent in their spending.

• Budget concerns are forcing a reexamination of travel costs. This is a particular problem in CUSA. ECU would like to see “extreme” measures taken including possible back-to-back games in sports like basketball or scheduling to allow men’s and women’s teams to travel together. It’s highly doubtful that other conference members will agree.

• The conceptual design for the construction of the new ‘olympic’ sport complex was shown and discussed. Funding is largely protected as it will come from committed student fees. Construction on the first phase (softball stadium) should begin by June.

• Other facilities will follow. The last piece will be a practice facility for men’s and women’s and basketball and volleyball. This is at least three years away. Private funding will be required for this facility.

• The resignation of the Coach Redding (volleyball) was discussed. It was stated that he had done a number of positive things while coach (the team had a good academic record and he had worked to build the sport locally). The failure to win more games had, however, eroded confidence among the players. It seemed best to make a change. A search is currently underway.

Nita Boyce:

• Reported improvement in the men’s and women’s track team’s academic performance during fall 2008. These teams were identified as a source of concern in the fall academic review by the Academic Integrity Subcommittee.

• State that it is possible that the APR penalties against the men’s basketball program will expire this semester allowing that program a full complement of 13 scholarships next year. This will be dependent upon academic performance and retention during the spring semester.

• Noted that the academic performance of the men’s basketball team declined during the fall semester. She attributed this primarily to the fact that the difficulty of classes had increased for many of the sophomores compared to the freshman year.

• Provided and overview of the fall academic performance of 426 ECU student athletes. The mean GPA for the group for spring semester was 2.88 and the cumulative GPA for the group 2.87. During the fall semester 88% of all student athletes recorded GPA’s in excess of 2.0 and 50% in excess of 3.0. The mean GPA for freshman athletes was 2.84. All of the figures were at or above the mean scores recorded in previous five years. Detailed, confidential grade reports for each team were provided for review by the Academic Integrity Subcommittee.

General Discussion

• There was general discussion regarding the potential of programming for student athletes including inviting past ECU to campus to discuss ‘life after athletics’. Nita Boyce noted that some of this had been done in the past.

Meeting adjourned at 4:30 pm.

The Academic Integrity Subcommittee then met in closed session to receive Nita Boyce’s report of athlete’s academic performance for the Fall 2008 semester.

Respectfully Submitted,

Michael Felts

Chair, University Athletics Committee

NEXT MEETING: March 3; 3:30 PM