Open forum on SU athletic certification process scheduled for March 2

Open forum on SU athletic certification process scheduled for March 2February 20, 2006Kevin Morrowkdmorrow@syr.edu

As announced last October, Syracuse University is engaged in a yearlong, campus-wide effort to study its athletic program as part of the NCAA Division I athletics certification program. An open forum has been scheduled for Thursday, March 2, from 3-5 p.m. in Room 500 (the Kilian Room) of the Hall of Languages to discuss the athletic certification process and inform the University community of the self-study’s progress and findings to date. Faculty, staff, students, alumni and interested individuals from the Syracuse community are encouraged to attend.

In advance of the open forum, a draft report will be available as of Feb. 23at http://www.suathletics.com.

Self-study steering committee chair David Bennett, professor of history in The College of Arts and Sciences and the Maxwell School, will moderate the open forum. Bennett will offer his insights on the self-study process, the three subcommittee chairs will describe the subcommittees’ work and then the floor will be opened to discussion.

The subcommittee chairs are Susan E. Donovan, dean of admissions (Academic Integrity); Michael Wasylenko, senior associate dean in the Maxwell School (Governance and Commitment to Rules Compliance); and Anastasia L. Urtz, dean of students (Equity and Student-Athlete Welfare). The Office of Athletic Compliance coordinates the certification process.

A second open forum, yet to be scheduled, will take place in late March.

Once the self-study is concluded, the University will submit a report to the NCAA by May 15. Subsequent to this submission, an external team of reviewers will conduct an evaluation visit to campus Sept. 18-20. The reviewers will be peers from other colleges, universities or conference offices. The review team will report to the NCAA Division I Committee on Athletics Certification. The committee will then determine SU’s certification status and announce the decision publicly.

The three options of certification status are certified, certified with conditions and not certified. According to the NCAA, colleges and universities are given an opportunity to correct deficient areas, but those that do not take corrective actions may be ruled ineligible for NCAA championships.

SU successfully completed the process in its last review, in 1998.