Media Release | Apr. 16, 2009

UBC defers decision on application to join NCAA Division II

A lack of answers to critical questions means deferral until at least 2010 of a decision on whether or not to apply for membership by June 1, 2009 in the US National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II. The NCAA opened membership beyond the United States for the first time in January 2009 as a pilot project with Canadian schools.

The UBC Executive has responded to the March 19 report of the NCAA Division II Review Committee for UBC Vancouver (online at www.students.ubc.ca/ncaa/). The report does not recommend for or against a UBC application to join the NCAA Division II.

The report was co-sponsored by Prof. David Farrar, Provost and Vice President, Academic, and Brian Sullivan, Vice President, Students. Farrar noted the report shows respondents to surveys and open houses were quite divided on the benefits of joining the NCAA and added there remains insufficient information to allow the university to determine NCAA suitability before a June 2009 window for application. “There are some critical unanswered questions that leave open options as to whether or not NCAA participation is the appropriate way to go for the university and its student athletes,” Farrar said.

Among the questions is whether or not UBC could receive an exemption from the NCAA for its academic accreditation requirement. Farrar said the requirement is financially onerous, and inappropriate for as highly regarded a university as UBC that is already accredited in Canada.

Further unresolved issues revolve around ongoing discussions about the level of competitive opportunities and financial support for student athletes that UBC and other universities are having with Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), the main body in which most UBC athletes currently compete. It is also unlikely to be clear until after the June NCAA deadline whether or not CIS will allow universities to compete in both the CIS and the NCAA. “CIS decisions on these matters will be critical to informing how UBC proceeds in certain sports,” Sullivan said.

“I do not believe, and the Review Committee report affirms, that the role of athletics at UBC is well articulated to, and understood by, our academic community,” UBC President Stephen Toope said. “I find this particularly unfortunate as the academic and competitive achievements of UBC student athletes lead the country, and athletics programs serve students and a wide cross-section of the university community, including residents of UTown@UBC.

“I am therefore pleased to note, and support, the report’s recommendation of a mechanism to stimulate dialogue among the Department of Athletics and Recreation and a variety of academic units.”

Farrar and Sullivan thanked the Review Committee, co-chaired by Marie Earl, Associate Vice President, Alumni and Executive Director of the UBC Alumni Association, and Prof. Daniel Muzyka, Dean of the Sauder School of Business, for its “rigorous, highly consultative and fair-minded” report.

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Contact

Scott Macrae
UBC Public Affairs
Cell: 604.764.7508
E-mail: scott.macrae@ubc.ca