From Elizabeth.Bradley@Colorado.EDU Wed Sep 10 16:03:20 2008 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.4 (2008-01-01) on research.cs.colorado.edu X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-4.4 required=5.0 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.2.4 Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:03:20 -0600 From: Liz Bradley To: Karl.Mueller@Colorado.EDU, Martha.Hanna@Colorado.EDU, e.scott.adler@Colorado.EDU, helen.norton@Colorado.EDU, Joseph.Jupille@Colorado.EDU, Bob.Sievers@Colorado.EDU, Stephen.Jones@Colorado.EDU, lizb@research.cs.colorado.edu, David.Clough@Colorado.EDU, tsnow@origins.Colorado.edu, Michael.Bohn@Colorado.EDU, Cecelia.Barry@Colorado.EDU, Barbara.Bintliff@Colorado.EDU, Andrew.Poppe@Colorado.EDU, george.hypolite@Colorado.EDU, dustin.farivar@Colorado.EDU, theodore.snow@Colorado.EDU, Gail.Pederson@Colorado.EDU, Maureen.Ryan@Colorado.EDU, Rosella.Chavez@Colorado.EDU cc: uriel.nauenberg@Colorado.EDU Subject: August meeting "minutes" Reply-to: lizb@cs.colorado.edu Dear All: My apologies for taking so long to compile these notes. I was out of town for most of the last two weeks and then had to spend a bunch of this week dealing with fallout from the announcement of the UWV game. (More on that below.) Below is a list of what I think we got done during the first meeting of the BFA intercollegiate athletics committee on 27 August 2008. These notes will be posted on the webpage, so there's no need to save them, but please do read through them now so you can send me corrections, amplifications, etc. if something occurs to you or if I've gotten anything wrong. I realize that these messages get long, but I've found that they make us much more effective as a committee. 1. The November meeting will be on 11/19, not 11/26, since the latter is in the middle of fall break. The schedule for the year is posted on the committee webpage, along with lots of other materials (agendas, documents, etc.) Please bookmark it! www.cs.colorado.edu/~lizb/bfa-iac.html 2. Martha Hanna reported on her trip to the COIA meeting in May. Her written report is posted on the committee webpage. The only "to do" that came out of this is that the Big 12 is not well represented in COIA, and the committee agreed to ask Uriel (our COIA rep) to work with the other Big 12 schools to change this. [I've cc'ed Uriel on this message so he knows what's up] 3. Mark Wetmore came to discuss an issue regarding student-athletes ("SAs") missing classes during an NCAA-qualifying meet. This particular situation appears to be covered under the existing missed-class policies of the athletics dept (viz., a letter that SAs are supposed to deliver to their instructors at the beginning of the semester) and of the BFA (via the interaction memo listed on the committee website). The committee members thanked Mark for being proactive, and agreed that one of our agenda items for the year should be a revisiting of the missed-class policy described in the interaction memo - among other things, whether SAs should have to get the letters signed by the instructor and return them to athletics. 4. FAR Dave Clough brought a scheduling conflict to our attention (the Big 12 golf tournament, which had been scheduled during the final exam period of many Big 12 schools) and asked for our opinion. The committee took a very dim view of this timing and asked Dave to relay its disapproval to the conference scheduling mavens. 5. We discussed several issues regarding the UWV game that is to be played on thursday 18 September. (Mike was proactive in bringing the unusual timing of this game to us and to the BAB early last year; you can check out the minutes of the associated meetings via the links at the bottom of the committee webpage.) Football's usual routine involves "reporting" at 5pm the night before a game (usually friday), staying in a hotel, and spending the entire game day in team functions: breakfast, meetings, walk through, lunch, etc. In the context of the UWV game, this means that the SAs will miss a full day (+) of classes - wednesday evening and all of thursday. And missing class on the day of a home game - an *evening* game - is a serious issue, particularly since other teams do not do this. Even though this particular game is a one-time thing, not a precedent, the committee was not happy to hear about the missed classes, especially for the purposes of meals, and especially because only one team does this. We asked Ceal and Mike to work with Coach Hawkins in regard to exceptions to allow SAs who have big tests and/or who are in academic danger to attend class (*automatic* exceptions, that is, not "opt in" ones that the SAs have to request). As a general policy, the football team used to miss *all* friday classes when it had an away game on a saturday. Hawkins has changed this policy so that SAs with tests or assignments on friday *mornings* can attend class. The committee recognizes that this "automatic friday miss" is common practice across the league, and it applauds Hawkins's policy change, but there is still some residual concern. All of these issues will factor into our discussion of the interaction memo, which will probably occur at the October meeting. Please think about them over the next month or so. 6. Agenda items for the year: - Update from Mike Bohn - The COIA recommendations - endgame - Missed class policy/interaction memo - Review of choice of majors & classes by SAs - APR report from Dave Clough - The Chancellor's memo on athletics (after the BAB digests it) - Should the IAC take on club sports? - Women/minority issues: mentoring, differential APR impacts (and that AAUP article, which is posted in the "media" section of our webpage) - Priority registration for "at risk" SAs We will take up the first two of these matters during our next meeting, which will take place on wednesday 24 September in Ekeley W230. Note that this is a DIFFERENT room than we used in August! Please watch your email for "homework" for that meeting, which I'll also post on the webpage. Whew. Liz p.s. Oh, I forgot about the UWV kerfluffle. The synopsis is that Phil's message on monday raised some hackles, at least in part because of its wording, which appeared to order that faculty cancel classes. That was not the intent of that message, and various levels of the administration are working on another message to undo that misperception and smooth any ruffled feathers. I addressed this at the BFA Execcomm on monday, explaining that athletics was extremely proactive and comprehensive in its inquiries and responses in regard to this game: that Mike had come to us and the BAB early on, and that we had approved the game - as a one-time exception, and with the proviso that every effort be made to minimize impacts on the academic side. Some faculty are, of course, still disgruntled and that will likely escalate next week as the game gets closer. You can help out by telling your colleagues about the process: that Athletics came to the BAB and to the BFA (via the IAC) about this issue, that it was discussed and approved, and that every one of our requests about it was followed. While we were all aware that there would be some disruption on campus by scheduling this game, there are some serious advantages to this event (exposure, recruiting, financial - not just athletics, but CU as a whole) and every effort was made to keep the disruption to a minimum. (Many buildings will be locked down at 8pm instead of the usual 10pm, by the way; exceptions can be arranged with the CUPD.)