Faculty headed to NCAA meeting

The Faculty Athletics Committee is becoming increasingly involved in giving input to ACC and NCAA conference proposals and discussed upcoming proposals for the NCAA convention later this week.

“I’m chuckling because I cannot wait for next year’s legislation, which will allow the student to have an agent to negotiate their contract,” joked Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham.

Members also held a discussion on NCAA proposals that will be voted on during the convention to assist Faculty Athletics representative Lissa Broome and Cunningham, who will be attending the NCAA convention.

“The centerpiece of these autonomy proposals — which we will discuss on Saturday and vote on on Saturday afternoon — is the cost of attendance figure,” Broome said, discussing student-athlete scholarship costs.

The committee overall did not favor the proposals concerning potential financial aid policies for student-athletes and felt the process was rushed.

The committee discussed its feelings toward loss of value insurance and wondered how the student-athletes would be able to convince loan services they were worth the investment.

The insurance would protect athletes from losing financial compensation if an injury ended their athletic careers.

Accrediting response

After the University responded to its accrediting agency’s letter questioning its academic standards this week, Chancellor Carol Folt thanked the committee at its Tuesday meeting for its work upholding UNC’s integrity since the scandal broke.

Folt thanked committee members for their dedication to the process — even before the Wainstein findings.

Folt said it was helpful to already have information when the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges — UNC’s accrediting body —requested it.

A letter from the association on Nov. 13 questioned whether UNC had committed as many as 18 policy violations. The University responded Monday with a 223-page letter defending areas such as “control of college athletics” and “faculty role in governance.”

Folt said the response will be available online to the public Tuesday but it is currently being held to give the accrediting agency time to receive and digest it.

“I can’t tell you how much work, not just went into the preparation of the SACS report, but as the Chancellor, I realized what was put into getting the University to the place it is with that SACS report,” Folt said.

“It is phenomenal, and I think if anyone takes the time to read the report, you would have to be extremely taken with the amount of work that went into it.”

university@dailytarheel.com

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, a previous version of this story mischaracterized the definition of loss of value insurance, which protects athletes from losing financial compensation, but not necessarily academic financial aid, in the event of an injury. The story also took Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham’s quote out of context. Cunningham made his comment about students having agents sarcastically. The story has been modified to reflect this change. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the errors.