FAYETTEVILLE -- Faculty members at the University of Arkansas voted unanimously on Wednesday to withdraw from the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics, an organization created to give professors at universities a voice on issues relating to college sports.
The coalition met last month but did not resolve concerns previously expressed by some UA faculty members about how the organization makes decisions, said Tom Jensen, a UA marketing professor and, since 2006, the university's representative to the group.
Explaining the university's place in the coalition, "we may or may not have a voice," Jensen said before the vote to withdraw from the group founded in 2002 with help from professors at the University of Arkansas.
The coalition is made up of faculty leadership groups from colleges and universities. According to the group's website, it had 64 members as of March 2016, including 12 schools in the 14-member Southeastern Conference, of which UA is a member.
The coalition was involved in helping the NCAA develop its Academic Progress Rate, implemented in 2003 as an accountability measure for schools. More recent actions taken by the group include a 2014 report on concussion protocols.
The vote comes two months after John Pijanowski, chairman of UA's faculty senate, described the coalition as having "drifted substantially."
"Mostly my concern is to protect the University of Arkansas brand, and that our name doesn't get carried along with things I don't feel comfortable with and that I haven't had a chance to be a part of," Pijanowski said in January. Pijanowski is a professor of educational leadership.
UA faculty members voted in early February to delay a vote on withdrawal until after the coalition's national meeting, held Feb. 17-19 at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.
No one from UA attended the meeting. The coalition's steering committee chairman, Mike Bowen, a marketing professor at the University of South Florida, said in an email that the organization at the meeting adopted a new mission statement: "To promote academic excellence, integrity and student well-being in intercollegiate athletics."
Bowen said the door remains open for UA.
"We absolutely respect their decision, and would welcome and value their inputs should they desire to reengage with us in the important upcoming conversations faculty will be needing to have about intercollegiate athletics," Bowen said in an email.
On Wednesday, Jensen said that, based on notes about the February meeting, the coalition's steering committee developed bylaw changes.
"The SEC was not represented on that steering committee," Jensen said, adding that out of all SEC schools, only the University of Tennessee had a faculty member travel to North Carolina for the meeting. Newly approved bylaws do not require conferences to be represented on the steering committee, Jensen said.
Jensen said Wednesday that while the UA faculty senate's executive committee brought forward the motion to withdraw, he supported the recommendation as a representative.
In a phone interview, Jean Frankel, president and chief executive officer for management consultants Florida-based Ideas for Action, said she volunteered at the February meeting to help the national coalition. Frankel has in the past worked on governance issues with the NCAA, the member-led organization overseeing many aspects of college sports.
The Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics "has struggled with what all organizations struggle with, which is making sure the way they operate is fair and democratic and equitable in terms of people having a voice," Frankel said.
She added that the group lacks paid staff members and is a "completely volunteer organization."
But Frankel said the group made progress in February.
"They defined their mission and they defined what issues they're going to work on," Frankel said, calling it "hugely important for people to listen to COIA."
"No. 1, they have the best interests of student-athletes at heart, and No. 2, they are faculty. It's really important for faculty to have a voice in making sure student-athletes have a balanced experience," Frankel said.
Metro on 03/09/2017