New national reasonable standards were published last week by the National Association for Athletics Compliance
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New Reasonable Standards for NCAA Member Institutions to Facilitate Academic Integrity within its Athletics Programs
New national reasonable standards were published last week by the National Association for Athletics Compliance (NAAC)
These benchmarks help NCAA member institutions organize and deploy attention and resources to critical areas within student-athlete educational tracks that may undermine academic integrity
University administrators from academics, athletics, and the registrar’s office to the FAR, Provost, and others are tasked with ownership and delivery
No time like the present for university leadership from across campus to convene and review
Last week, NAAC issued a new set of reasonable standards regarding academic integrity for NCAA member institutions. Specifically, the goal for this round of reasonable standards is to ensure that institutions are engaging in appropriate monitoring, education and documentation with regard to academic misconduct involving prospective and current student-athletes.
Monitoring
From a monitoring standpoint, NAAC’s new standards indicate that an institutions’ faculty athletics representative (FAR), registrar, compliance administrator, academic administrator, provost, president and/or designee should review annually all established institutional policies and procedures regarding academic misconduct. Further, this same group should annually review and monitor all established institutional policies and procedures regarding grade changes.
In terms of specific allegations of academic misconduct involving a student-athlete, NAAC’s reasonable standards call for the provost or designee, dean of students, registrar, FAR, compliance administrator, and the academic administrator and/or designee to review all cases that involve student-athletes to determine if any improper assistance was provided by a current/former institutional staff member or representative of athletics interests. The reviews should happen as cases arise. These matters also bring in potential NCAA enforcement jurisdiction when it comes to student-athletes receiving an “extra benefit” in the form of impermissible academic help.
The FAR, registrar, compliance administrator, and academic administrator are tasked with the following:
reviewing every term and prior to the institution’s census date both traditional and non-traditional classes for possible clustering of student-athletes;
monitoring each semester student-athlete performance in non-traditional classes for red flags related to academic misconduct;
reviewing annually and/or establish policies and procedures related to the proctoring of exams and class assignments;
and annually reviewing and/or establishing policies and procedures related to academic tutors.
An institution’s athletics compliance administrator and academic administrator and/or designee are also called to annually review and/or establish policies for academic credit internship opportunities for student-athletes.
When it comes to quality control of an incoming transfer’s academic records, the eligibility certification authority, registrar, FAR, compliance administrator, academic administrator and/or designee should review the records of prospects with deficiencies such as multiple academic changes to grade or course changes during the semesters or summer prior to full-time enrollment.
Education Outreach
On the education front, the campus office of academic integrity or its equivalent, FAR, compliance administrator, academic administrator and/or designee should provide annually and prior to the twelfth class day academic integrity rules education to all student-athletes. The FAR, campus office of academic integrity or similar official should also distribute annually and prior to twelfth class day the athletics academic integrity policies to faculty and staff. At least annually, the FAR, compliance administrator, and/or academic administrator shall provide all tutors for student-athletes with academic integrity rules education prior to tutoring student-athletes.
In addition, the office of academic integrity or its equivalent, FAR, compliance administrator, or academic administrator should annually present education on academic integrity to all athletics academic staff to review all areas of academic misconduct, specifically those outlined in the monitoring standards.
Documentation
From a documentation standpoint, a compliance administrator and/or academic administrator shall maintain annually a record of academic integrity education provided to athletics staff and student-athletes.
The compliance administrator, academic administrator and/or designee should disseminate annually at the beginning of each academic year the conduct expectation policies to tutors, mentors, and other staff/offices that provide academic support to student-athletes.
The compliance administrator, academic administrator and/or designee should maintain annual records of communication at the beginning of the year by athletics department staff members with academic authorities on campus regarding incoming and continuing student-athletes.
The academic administrator and/or designee and/or FAR maintain records annually relevant to proctoring and testing procedures for online assignments and exams taken in athletics facilities or while on team travel.
The academic administrator and/or designee and/or FAR should maintain records on annual basis at beginning of academic year regarding student-athlete participation in nontraditional courses and internships.
The FAR, compliance administrator, academic administrator, and eligibility certification authority should document as needed grade change data, grade change review data, and recertification due to grade changes.
The FAR, compliance administrator, and academic administrator should annually document major or degree distribution and enrollment distribution data and review for student-athlete “clustering”.
Conclusion
The themes underlying these reasonable standards for monitoring, education, and documentation are not speculative. These standards focus on historically symptomatic concerns (e.g., too many student-athletes in the same classes or degree program) to well-chronicled, high-risk scenarios (e.g., rogue academic tutors) that have played out in recent NCAA major infractions cases.
Fostering an environment of academic integrity takes the blend of education, monitoring, cross-campus collaboration and “trust but verify” measures to enable Division I institutions to stay in front of the corrosiveness of academic misconduct.
With these new reasonable standards debuting in September 2020, it is interesting timing during interesting times. The amplification of virtual learning platforms for students (including student-athletes) across Division I campuses due to COVID-19 is top of mind for educators, administrators, and students. The 2020-21 academic year is rooted in novel virtual learning mechanisms and hybrid course flexibility across U.S. campuses. Our current higher education frontier places even more emphasis on Division I institutions’ to ensure compliance quality control measures and monitoring are in place to prevent, or at least curb, academic misconduct in a remote-learning landscape.
There is no time like the present for university leadership including the president’s office, deans, the registrar, and faculty leadership to meet and collaborate with athletics compliance and academic administrators to review these reasonable standards against your university’s current policies, procedures, and outreach.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
