By Debra Bradley Ruder

Gazette Staff

The team of faculty, administrators, and students examining Harvard's intercollegiate athletics program has concluded that Harvard's offerings are strong and equitable, but that they have room for improvement.

These conclusions are contained in a 145-page self-study, prepared as part of the NCAA Division I athletics certification process. A team of outside evaluators will probe the report and its thick appendices when it visits Harvard on March 2-5.

The self-study and evaluation visit are steps in a process that began more than a year ago and is expected to finish in the summer/fall of 1998 with a decision by the NCAA about certification.

"This has given us an opportunity to take a critical look at our programs and procedures, to confirm what we're doing right, and to find opportunities to make changes," said Harry R. Lewis, Dean of Harvard College and chair of the steering committee for the accreditation review. "For one, it has encouraged us to put in writing guidelines that had not previously been written down.

"We're very proud of having a 41-sport program -- the largest of any Division I school in the country -- and of the athletic and academic successes of our students and teams," he added. "The graduation rate for our athletes is essentially identical to the overall graduation rate of about 97 percent."

The accreditation process builds on more than 20 years of regular internal reviews of the athletic program, conducted under the auspices of the FAS Faculty Standing Committee on Athletic Sports. Lewis and the four subcommittee chairs -- Elizabeth Studley Nathans, Nancy L. Maull, William R. Fitzsimmons, and Barbara J. Grosz -- all serve on the standing committee.

(This is a separate process from the University's accreditation through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, which sent a review team here in November.)

Harvard's athletic self-study covers the four broad areas of academic integrity, fiscal integrity, governance and rules compliance, and commitment to equity. For each area, it offers an assessment of Harvard's policies and programs, as well as various plans for improvement, some of which have already begun.

For example, changes have already been made in the area of rules compliance, as Harvard has streamlined the process for certifying students' eligibility to participate in intercollegiate sports. Plans are also under way to enhance communication between the Department and coaches through additional meetings and publications.

Turning to questions of fairness and diversity, the report states that Harvard's athletic department is "highly attentive to the equitable treatment of its men and women athletes," and that the subcommittee conducting the review "is pleased by the Department's commitment to gender equity, its attention to minority issues, and its broad-based support for student-athlete welfare."

According to the self-study document, the proportion of athletes who are women is within 2 to 4 points of the percentage of undergraduates who are women. Salaries for female and male coaches are equitable within Harvard, adjusting for experience, responsibility, and other job-related factors.

The report notes that Harvard has enhanced its facilities available to women, and that the athletic department's budget has been allowed to grow slightly faster than other parts of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences -- largely to support gender equity.

Two years ago, the Department began to unite all the "Friends Groups" for which men's and women's teams exist. These groups help teams pay for recruiting, banquets, and other expenses not covered by the regular budget. (The Harvard Radcliffe Foundation for Women's Athletics also provides financial assistance to women's teams here.)

However, the authors acknowledge a number of problem areas and recommend steps to address actual or perceived inequities. For example:

* Recruitment. Spending for recruitment of female athletes has increased markedly in recent years, and the Department "is committed to continuing to make adequate and increased funding available for the recruiting needs of women teams," the self-study states.

* Coaching support. An imbalance exists in the overall number of assistant coaches for men's and women's teams, caused by the large number of full-time assistant coaches necessary in football. The report says the Department will develop a plan over the next two years to address this inequity; athletic officials hope to do so by boosting the number of assistant coaches for women's teams.

* Minority outreach. Harvard has too little diversity in its coaching and administrative staffs, and it will continue aggressive steps to attract members of minority groups to those positions, according to the report. Efforts will include building networks with coaching staffs and alumni of black, Latino, and Native American colleges and universities.

The self-study process has involved a large number of faculty, students, alumni/ae, and members of the University's administration, including President Neil L. Rudenstine.

Patricia Henry, senior associate director of athletics and a member of the review's steering committee, said she was pleased the study was undertaken primarily by people outside the Department of Athletics.

"It has been productive for the Harvard community as a whole to engage in this conversation and to understand what goes on in the world of athletics," she said.

Thomas A. Dingman, associate dean of Harvard College, coordinated the review process.

"We are indebted to so many individuals who helped carry out the study and make the report a reality -- especially the subcommittee chairs, all extremely busy people already," he said. "We're also indebted to Diane Dickman, the NCAA representative; Carolyn Campbell, the Ivy representative; Mac Broderick, staff assistant; and Donald Stone [FAS professor of romance languages and literatures emeritus], the report writer who took painstaking care to weave the draft contributions into a readable whole."

In addition to Henry, Dingman, and Dean Lewis, the steering committee includes Carolyn S. Campbell, senior associate director, Ivy Council; William Cleary, director of athletics; William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions; Barbara J Grosz, FAS professor of computer science; Jill Hooley, FAS professor of psychology; James Hoyte, associate vice president at Harvard; Kate Martin, president, Harvard Varsity Club; Nancy Maull, FAS administrative dean; Vincent J. McGugan, vice president, Harvard Varsity Club; Elizabeth S. Nathans, dean of freshmen; and President Rudenstine.

The report will soon be available on the NCAA self-study Web page, at www.harvard.edu/ncaa_self_study.

 

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Copyright 1998 President and Fellows of Harvard College