MARQUETTE ATHLETIC PROGRAM ENGAGES IN RECERTIFICATION SELF-STUDY

Released: 3/1/04

Marquette will begin a year-long, campus-wide effort to study its athletics program as part of the NCAA Division I athletics recertification program. Specific areas of study are academic integrity, governance, rules compliance, as well as a commitment to equity and student-athlete welfare. Marquette successfully completed its first athletics program certification self-study in 1997. NCAA recertification is required once every ten years.

The certification program's purpose is to help ensure integrity in the institution's athletics operations. It opens up athletics to the rest of the university community and to the public. The committee responsible for the study will include Rev. Robert Wild, S.J., president; Dr. Linda Lee, associate vice president for student affairs and chair of the steering committee; as well as representatives from the university faculty and staff, alumni, trustees, student-athletes, students and athletics department personnel. A member of the NCAA membership services staff will be a liaison to the steering committee and its subcommittees.

Once the study is concluded, an external team of reviewers will conduct an evaluation visit on campus. Those reviewers will be peers from other colleges, universities or conference offices. That team will submit a report to the NCAA Division I Committee on Athletics Certification, another independent group, which will then determine the institution's certification renewal and announce the decision publicly.

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.