The newly proposed committee, called the Committee on the Future of College Sport, would, according to the resolution, “examine the academic and other implications of the changes coming to college sports ... (and) propose appropriate responses to protect the University’s academic integrity and the academic interests of athletes.”
Faculty Athletics Committee members said forming a task force for this purpose would take responsibilities away from their committee, which could help to implement many of the proposed athletics-related responses discussed in the resolution on campus.
Chairwoman Joy Renner said the FAC wants to have more of a say in how the resolution’s ideas are carried out than the resolution allows.
“We’re good with having the conversations and having things happen. We just think that FAC should be involved in organizing it and taking in information, that sort of thing,” she said. “And we may have some wording and things we want to add to that.”
Committee member Andy Perrin said a new task force shouldn’t be created if it is going to implement policy changes that should fall under the purview of the athletics committee.
“The original resolution asks this (new) group to propose appropriate responses to protect the University’s academic integrity and the academic interests of athletes, which are clearly policy recommendations within the jurisdiction of FAC,” he said. “I think it’s a terrible idea for us to suggest such a task force to be policymaking. It is the job of the elected bodies to be making policy, and not of ad hoc committees.”
For committee member Deborah Stroman, the resolution and a substitute resolution with slight modifications proposed by the Faculty Executive Committee represent a broader issue of confidence in the abilities of the athletics committee.
