West Virginia is beginning its third cycle of the NCAA Division I athletics certification program, interim President C. Peter Magrath announced today.
The process will run through 2010, beginning with a self study in these principle areas: governance and commitment to rules compliance, academic integrity, as well as gender and diversity and student-athlete well-being.
While academic accreditation is common in colleges and universities, this program focuses solely on certification of athletics programs. WVU was one of the first schools nationally to volunteer for the NCAA s pilot certification program in 1991 and was one of five schools originally certified at that time. The WVU athletics program was recertified by the NCAA in 1996 and then again in 2001. At the 1997 NCAA Convention, the NCAA Division I membership voted to change the frequency of athletics certification from once every five years to once every 10 years.
“West Virginia was one of the first two schools to participate in the initial NCAA certification in 1993, and we look forward to beginning the third cycle of the process during the next year,”says Director of Athletics Ed Pastilong.”This enables our University to confirm its commitment to the key values of intercollegiate athletics.”
The study process involves members of the institutions faculty and staff, as well as athletics department personnel and student-athletes. A member of the NCAA membership services staff conducted a one-day orientation videoconference with participants to kick off the process.
When WVU concludes its study, an external team of reviewers will conduct an evaluation visit on campus. Those reviewers will be peers from other colleges, universities or conference offices. The peer-review team will report to the NCAA Division I Committee on Athletics Certification. The Committee on Athletics Certification will then determine the institutions certification status and announce the decision publicly. The three options of certification status are: certified, certified with conditions and not certified. While institutions will have an opportunity to correct deficient areas, those institutions that do not take corrective actions may be ruled ineligible for NCAA championships.
The NCAA is a membership organization of colleges and universities that participate in intercollegiate athletics. The primary purpose of the association is to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body. Activities of the NCAA membership include formulating rules of play for NCAA sports, conducting national championships, adopting and enforcing standards of eligibility and studying all phases of intercollegiate athletics.