Note: The following message was sent to commission members on November 16, 2005.

To: Advising Student Athletes Commission Members
From: Nancy Everson, Commission Chair
Re: Proposed NCAA Legislation

Hello Members of the Advising Student Athletes Commission!

I know that you are all deep in the registration mode as well as helping your advisees prepare for finals. Can you believe exams are right around the corner?!!

First of all, I’d like to thank you for your wonderful suggestions at our heavily attended commission meeting. Know that every one was heard! I am also grateful to those of you who generously offered to help plan the meeting next year in Indianapolis. Because so many offered to help, we will be able to share the workload and not have one or two volunteers with too much to do. We should all be proud of the progress we are making in developing our commission and excited about the opportunity we now have to not only interact with so many others in our field, but to have our collective voices heard in Indianapolis. I am currently working on breaking down the tasks into manageable chunks and those of you who want to participate on the steering committee or volunteer to help plan for Indianapolis will have lots of opportunity to do so in a way that fits your available time and interest.

Which brings me to this first task…we have been asked by Julie Cromer from the NCAA to take a look at the proposed legislation that is posted on our site. You can forward comments directly to me at naever@wm.edu. I will summarize the comments and provide the range of opinions of our membership to Julie so she can take this back to the NCAA for further discussion. I personally have had some thoughts about a few rules in the past but, by the time the legislation had passed, it was a little late to comment. I am thrilled that we are being asked for input at this early stage so that we may now add our voice to others in athletics and academia prior to implementation of new legislation. This is an extraordinary opportunity that we should not let pass!

The plan is this:

• Look at the proposed legislation.
• Talk with others on your campus such as compliance, student affairs and other administrators who are knowledgeable of student-athlete issues. E-mail them or call…whatever works best for you. If you cannot do that, simply forward your thoughts. Your opinion counts!
• Forward the comments along with the name of your school and the position of the individual who is commenting so we’ll know if the suggestions came from compliance or academic advisors, etc.
• Feel free to comment whether positive or negative and don’t hesitate to make suggestions.
• Your comments may be brief or lengthy. A simple “I support this” is OK as are longer, detailed comments and suggestions. You don’t have to comment about everything; even one item is OK.
• Please send your comments to me at naever@wm.edu by DECEMBER 2, 2005.

It’s that easy! Here is the link to the proposed legislation:

Thank you very much for the important work you are doing!

Nancy Everson
Coordinator of Academic Support
College of William and Mary
Chair, NACADA Advising Student Athletes Commission
(757) 221-3241

naever@wm.edu