Following a self-study by the University and an examination by the NCAA, the University has been recertified as a Division I school.
The announcement of recertification followed a six-month self-study, a two-day on-campus review by the NCAA and an NCAA internal review to ensure that the athletics program complies with its standards for athletics program governance, student-athlete welfare, academics and equity.
After the NCAA began mandating athletics certification in 1993, the University's athletics program was first certified in 1997 and submitted an interim report in 2002. Recertification is now required on a 10-year cycle.
Director of Athletics Michael Goldberger said he is "delighted" with the recertification.
The self-study, which started in December 2005 and was completed in May 2006, was led by a steering committee, and the work was undertaken by three subcommittees - for governance, academic integrity and equity and student-athlete welfare. The subcommittees comprised faculty, students, staff and alums, and each was chaired by one administrator and one faculty member.
Richard Spies, executive vice president for planning and senior adviser to the president, who chaired the recertification steering committee, told The Herald that the NCAA review team had only a few "small suggestions" for the University, mainly concerning communication issues. The NCAA informed the Department of Athletics that it was likely to be recertified after the two-day review in November.
Russell Carey '91 MA'06, interim vice president for campus life and student services and co-chair of the subcommittee on governance and compliance, said the areas under his subcommittee's review were "extremely sound."
Professor of History Howard Chudacoff, faculty liaison to the NCAA and the other co-chair of the subcommittee on governance and compliance, called the process "straightforward."
"It allowed us to examine what we do and identify things that were outside of the certification process that we would want to pay attention to," he said.
Spies said the athletics program learned that "we can and should do a better job communicating" about rules and procedures to athletes. "Just putting something in a handbook is not enough," he said, adding that there could be slight improvements in communication among coaches, athletes, deans, faculty and other groups.
Goldberger cited the inclusion of rules about missing classes in the student-athlete handbook as an example of policies that have been made clearer to student-athletes as a result of the self-study. He said procedures regarding transfer students could also be clarified further.
The review addressed ongoing concerns about diversity in the athletics department. In an interview with The Herald in February 2006, Goldberger cited minority under-representation at the coaching level as a possible concern for the NCAA review. Goldberger said Monday that he had met with then-Vice President for Campus Life and Student Services David Greene and President Ruth Simmons soon after he became athletics director in 2005 to address the lack of diversity in the athletics staff.
By the time of the review, minorities were "no longer underrepresented," Goldberger said, because Simmons had provided funding for internship programs, and visiting coaches brought in by the University had accepted full-time positions.
Spies said Goldberger's concerns about diversity were incorporated in the equity portion of the review, and the University discussed its plans for increased coaching diversity with the NCAA review team.
Spies added that the University "should be held accountable in the next round (of certification) for the implementation" of plans for the recruitment and retention of minority coaches.
Goldberger and Spies said gender equity did not receive special attention in the recertification process. A federal judge ruled in 1995 that the University violated Title IX, a 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination at institutions that receive federal aid. As part of the settlement in Cohen v. Brown, the University agreed to keep the proportion of its female athletes within 3.5 percentage points of the proportion of female undergraduates.
Spies said the University still has to report the status of women's sports to a court each year. He added that the University follows requirements to ensure there is not a gender imbalance in the student-to-athlete ratio. He also said there are caps on the size of all of the male teams and "a very strong push from the women's teams to maintain their size."
"The NCAA thought there wasn't much they could add to that," he said.
Spies, Goldberger and Carey all said bridging the perceived gap between athletics and academics was an informal issue raised by the recertification process.
Though Spies said Brown is "a lot closer to the ideal of student-athletes being indistinguishable from every other student" than some other schools, he said there is a "great consciousness" on the part of the University about beliefs among students, faculty and the administration that athletes are separate from the rest of the student body.
Goldberger said "making people view athletics as part of the educational experience" is one of his "big priorities" as athletics director. The athletics department is taking steps to bridge "the divide between athletics and academics" by encouraging administrators to attend athletic events, having coaches hold staff meetings on campus and ensuring faculty representation and advising for each athletic team, he said.
Spies also said recent "take a coach to class" events have been successful in giving coaches a "sense of what academic life is like."
Some students and faculty "assume that someone could not be at Brown if (they) could not run fast or jump high or throw hard," Chudacoff said. But Chudacoff added that "just as many faculty are proud of student-athletes" as "disrespect" them.
Making athletics an "integrated priority" of students' overall academic experience has been a continuous process for the University, Carey said. After 30 years spent working in the Admission Office, Goldberger "fully understands what the educational mission of the University is," Carey added.
Goldberger said the recertification was an affirmation of the program, providing suggestions that ensure Brown athletics "can continue to provide our students with the best possible experience."
"We got a great deal out of the process," Carey said.
