General | 1/11/2023 7:51:37 AM
The Empire 8 will be hard at work during the 2023 NCAA Convention, which takes place from Jan. 11-14 in San Antonio. On Saturday, Jan. 14, the Empire 8 is the primary sponsor of three legislative proposals that aim to benefit the student-athlete experience during the NCAA’s Division III Business Session.
“?Our proposals aim to modernize the NCAA by-laws to address student-athlete mental health and expand the voice and representation in our division,” said Empire 8 Commissioner Chuck Mitrano, who also serves as Chairperson of the NCAA Division III Championships Committee. We are excited to advocate for these policies that help our division evolve to best represent the today’s student-athlete and institution.”
Overall, the Division III membership is scheduled to vote Saturday morning on 12 proposals and one resolution. The three pieces of legislation that the Empire 8 is sponsoring include:
PROPOSAL #3 – Mental Health Hardship Waiver
Calls for the membership to create a distinct Mental Health Hardship Waiver that acknowledges the unique circumstances of mental health conditions versus physical injuries and allows the association to leverage the experts on the NCAA Mental Health Advisory Group.
“Very few are aware that student-athletes can seek a hardship waiver for mental health conditions because 14.2.5 only mentions a season-ending injury or illness,” said Mitrano, now in his 22nd season as E8 Commissioner. “It does not explicitly state that season-ending mental health conditions qualify for hardship waiver. Mental health conditions are not visible like physical injuries and the qualifying criteria should account for this difference. We’ve learned a lot about mental health since the creation of 14.2.5 and our policies should reflect the challenges of the modern student-athlete.”
PROPOSAL #6 – Nominating Committee Structure
This proposal amend
s the composition of the Nominating
Committee to include at least one
member from each of the 10 regions (based
on sport committee regions model) to
cultivate more committee nominations and
appointments representative of the membership. This proposal aims to structure the Nominating Committee from current four-region geography based model to a conference based structure that takes geography into account modeled after the Championships 10-region model.
Proposal 6 creates 10 regions while Proposal 5 retains 4 regions. The lower ratio makes for a more efficient and productive structure.
Proposal 6 supports the recruitment of more diverse and representative nominations and positive relationship between the region representatives and their conferences and ensures the Western members have equitable representation.
Co-sponsor of this legislation includes the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.
PROPOSAL #7 – Presidents and Management Council Composition
Similar to Proposal 6, this proposal will ensure
the following: that each Division III
multi-sport conference will have one representative
on either Presidents or Management
Council and that the conference's
slot on either will alternate accordingly;
the Nominating Committee will coordinate
nominations for Management Council
and Presidents Council; and, if a conference
is unable to secure nominees for
either council its slot will go unfilled unless
the council is smaller than 18 members
in which case an at-large selection
will be made from the group of nominees
from conferences not currently represented
on the respective council, including
nominees from independent institutions.
This proposal ensures all conferences would have representation on Presidents or Management Council at all times, greatly expanding the voice of the membership.
Proposal 7 ensures all conferences have a representative on each committee every four years while Proposal 8 caps Presidents Council at 20, meaning four conferences would not have a representative for eight years. In addition, this offers a more inclusive appointment process through Nominating Committee.
Co-sponsors of Proposal 7 includes the North Coast Athletic Conference, Presidents’ Athletic Conference, Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and USA South Athletic Conference.
ABOUT THE EMPIRE 8 CONFERENCE
The members of the Empire 8 Conference are committed first and foremost to the pursuit of academic excellence and the league is regarded as an outstanding NCAA Division III conference. The membership has distinguished itself among its peer group for its quality institutions, spirited and sportsmanlike competition, outstanding services and highly ethical policies and practices. Its commitment to serve the educational needs of its student-athletes is the hallmark of the E8. For more on the Empire 8 visit
www.empire8.com.
EMPIRE 8 SOCIAL MEDIA
YouTube –
Facebook –
Twitter –
Instagram