Faculty Governance Committee on Instruction

Returning Exner Motion on Athletic Practices to Committee

From the Minutes of the February 2003 Faculty Meeting:

Prof. George Exner, in his guise of a private citizen (not as chair of COI) next presented his motion to eliminate varsity athletic practices (or practice-like activities) between 8AM and 4PM, with some exceptions noted in the December, 2002 Agenda. After the motion was seconded, he went on to elaborate that his motion addressed the principle of protecting the academic day and the practicalities of resolving current conflicts. He asserted that a policy banning practices before 4PM had long been observed de facto, if not de jure, but now seems to be more frequently violated. If the policy is now not being observed by coaches, then the complications of his motion are necessary.

Prof. Janice Mann observed that under the terms of the motion more practices would be moved to evenings and thus conflict with evening classes, even if students had open time during the day; Prof. Exner agreed that calling only 8 to 4 class hours was inaccurate and struck that phrase from the motion. Practices could be held between 4PM and 7PM and not interfere with any classes. Prof. Gary Sojka wondered why other activities such as musical and theatre rehearsals were not mentioned, and observed that the motion was not helpful to a general discussion of the role of athletics at the university. Prof. Exner considered the conflicts to be largely with athletic practices, and was directed at coaches and institutions, not individuals. Former student-athlete, and current faculty member Prof. Doug Allen noted that too much management of a student s free time is paternalistic and that student-athletes perform well academically. Prof. Exner countered that in fact we do not have complete data on this issue and was not sure the University was interested in gathering such data. A number of discussants commented that perhaps the data should be gathered before approving a rather complex motion. Several members of the Committee on Athletics (a subcommittee of COI) noted that COA has looked into the issue of conflicts and could not document a major problem. Prof. Ned Ladd agreed with Prof. Exner that conflicts have been frequent. Prof. Ben Marsh, stating that the motion was both complex and not of high urgency, moved that the motion be referred to COI for further study, including data gathering. After a second, his motion was voted on and passed.