Athletics recertification self-study results to be forum topic

A campus forum to discuss the preliminary results of a self-study conducted as part of the university’s NCAA athletics certification program will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31.

The session will be held in the Ebling Symposium Center at the Microbial Sciences Building. Parking will be available in Lot 40 behind Babcock Hall and in the Steenbock ramp (Lot 36) for those attending the forum. Officials will discuss the results of the self-study process and seek feedback from participants.

The NCAA athletics certification program is designed to benefit the university by providing a chance to increase campuswide awareness of athletics issues and challenges; to affirm the positive aspects of intercollegiate athletics; and to improve areas of the program that may be identified in the self-study.

The program opens athletics to the rest of the university community and to the public. The university successfully completed similar self-studies and received NCAA certification in 1994 and 2002.

More than 50 individuals from across the campus are serving on various committees to study governance and commitment to rules compliance, academic integrity, and gender, diversity and student-athlete well-being matters.

Within each area to be studied, the program has standards known as operating principles that were adopted by the NCAA to establish benchmarks to which all Division I members are evaluated.

After Wisconsin concludes its self-study and submits it to the NCAA by May 1, an external team of reviewers, comprised of peers from other colleges, universities or conferences, will conduct a three-day evaluation visit on campus. The scheduled visit to Wisconsin is set for Sept. 21-23.

For more information, including a downloadable pdf of the self-study report, visit http://ncaacertification.wisc.edu/.