A campus of The California State University

Office of the Academic Senate • One Washington Square • San Jose, California 95192-0024 •408-924-2440 Fax: 408-924-2451

SS-S05-11

At its meeting of May 16, 2005, the Academic Senate passed the following Sense of the Senate Resolution presented by Chair Nellen for the Executive Committee.

SENSE-OF-THE-SENATE RESOLUTION
JOINING THE COALITION OF INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETICS (COIA)

WHEREAS, For over one year, the SJSU Academic Senate has been encouraged by the leaders of the Coalition of Intercollegiate Athletics (COIA) to join with other Division 1A institutions by becoming a member of COIA; and

WHEREAS, In Spring 2004, the Senate formed a Intercollegiate Athletics Task Force to review COIA and provide a list of pros and cons of joining COIA to the Senate (SM-S04-1) and that report was presented to the Senate on May 9, 2005; and

WHEREAS, COIA was created in 2002 by faculty from Division 1A universities. Per the COIA website, COIA “seeks to become a faculty voice in the national debate over the future of college sports.” COIA works with the AAUP, the Association of Governing Boards, the NCAA and other groups “to promote serious and comprehensive reform of intercollegiate sports.  Its goal is to preserve and enhance the contributions athletics can make to academic life by addressing longstanding problems in college sports that undermine those contributions.” [http://www.math.umd.edu/~jmc/COIA/COIA-Home.html] and

WHEREAS, As of January 26, 2005, the other WAC universities in COIA were CSU Fresno, Hawaii and SMU; future WAC universities - New Mexico State and Idaho, have joined; and

WHEREAS, The other CSU Division 1A institutions are members (SDSU, member of the Mountain West Conference, and CSU Fresno). Joining would lend support both to COIA and the other CSU Division 1A institutions;

WHEREAS, The Statewide Senate supports the principles of the COIA framework; therefore be it

RESOLVED, That upon majority vote of this resolution, the SJSU Academic Senate join COIA and the Senate Chair notify COIA of such action; and be it further

RESOLVED, That the Senate Chair work with the chair of the Athletics Board and the Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) to keep the Senate informed via periodic reports, of the activities of COIA and their effect on and relevance to SJSU, and be it further

RESOLVED, That should the COIA start charging dues this Sense of the Senate Resolution will be reexamined.

Approved: On May 9, 2005, the Executive Committee recommended having the Senate vote on whether or not to join COIA by either accepting or rejecting this resolution.

Financial Impact: None