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Judith Adams-Volpe is chair of the Intercollegiate Athletics Board. In her spare time, she's director of university and external relations for the Arts & Science Libraries.
What is the Intercollegiate Athletics Board (IAB)?
The IAB is an oversight group for intercollegiate athletics—that's NCAA Division I athletics only; recreational or intramural aspects of athletics are not strictly within our charge. The IAB, which meets monthly, reports directly to the university president. The IAB as an entity is not required by the NCAA, and various campuses around the country have different kinds of oversight groups. Ours is a good cross-section of faculty, professional staff, administration representatives and students and student-athletes. UB created the IAB when we moved up to Division I.
What are some of the duties of the IAB?
We review the intercollegiate athletics budget once a month and watch for things that might appear to be problematic as compared to a previous year. We also look at successes in terms of revenues. If there are situations that need attention, the board would bring those before the administration. We also very carefully look at gender equity in athletics, NCAA rules compliance and student-athlete welfare issues, including academic performance and progress. The IAB also participates in exit interview with athletes when they graduate. Exit interviews cover their entire experience here and we listen to the students about their overall experience at UB. While the role is not advocacy, the board also tries to give some visibility on campus to the quality of athletic programs and the accomplishments of student-athletes, both on the field and court and in the classroom.
What role did the IAB play in the recent NCAA accreditation process?
We played quite a large role. Most of the members of the IAB were assigned to subcommittees for the NCAA certification review—a fairly massive undertaking, similar to the Middle States accreditation. Many of us participated in interviews with the peer review panel that came to campus in November. As members of the subcommittees, we helped to write the self-study report and did a lot of the fact-finding on campus for all of the issues that had to be addressed in the self study. The IAB itself was looked at during the accreditation process as well. The peer review panel looked at our annual report and the general areas of interest of the IAB. So we also had to respond to them in terms of our activities.
Your involvement with athletics seems a little removed from your area of expertise as a librarian. How did you get involved with the IAB?
It was noted that I was attending more UB athletic events than perhaps most faculty members. I was asked by President Greiner to be a member of the board—I was a member of the board for three years—then I became chair of the board.
So you're a fan?
Oh, yes. A big fan. I'm a very emotional spectator. I do yell at the refs. I've taken to keeping score at basketball games so I won't scream at the refs.
Which sport do you prefer? Football? Basketball?
Believe it or not, my own private love is wrestling—collegiate wrestling. However, I'm a season ticket holder for football and basketball. I became a wrestling fan through my undergraduate school—Wilkes College. Wrestling was their big sport. UB's wrestling team recently became the 2003 New York State collegiate wrestling champions!
How do you get more faculty and staff interested in UB athletics?
Obviously, we have to generate more success on the field. My own personal goal is to bring more attention on campus to the less-visible sports—the non revenue-generating sports—where we have shown considerable success. But the community really isn't aware of it. We have had conference champions in less-visible sports, such as women's soccer. We have individual student athletes who are MAC champs—last year we had six individual conference champion student athletes. The Spectrum and the Reporter do cover athletics well, but there doesn't seem to be a general recognition of the accomplishments we've had. But that's understandable. Recognition in college athletics is dependent on performance in the premier sports. The accomplishments of the UB Division I program really are quite amazing. In terms of the excellence of the student-athletes, they are incredibly impressive. It is the dedication, commitment and excellence required at the Division 1 level which, I think, has vaulted these student-athletes to their level of achievement that I don't think would have happened had we'd remained on a lower level.
There's still a lot of grousing by some faculty members about the amount of money being spent on the athletics program rather than on academics.
The report that was completed by the Faculty Senate Budget Priorities Committee did document that the Division of Athletics' level of funding is actually returned to the university if you look at the scholarships they support and the student-athletes that enroll here. If you look at it in that way, the money comes back to the university. But many people are not willing to look at it in that regard. There is very little state money that goes into athletics—most of the funding is obtained through grants, fundraising for scholarships, the student athletic fee, guarantees for playing certain teams (like Minnesota or Rutgers), concessions. There is a special state allocation for gender equity, received by UB specifically because of our Division I status..
Is there a link between athletics and academic performance?
We've tried through the Faculty Senate and other ways to document the connection here at UB between athletics and learning. The academic achievement of our athletes is very significant. If you take the cumulative GPA of all the student-athletes—which has been rising nearly every semester—it is significantly higher than the student body as a whole. There are eight teams with a team GPA of 3.0 or higher. We are especially proud, too, of our graduate rate for student-athletes—nationally UB is a standout!
What do you think about the proposed changes in Title IX?
Proponents of Title IX seem to have largely prevailed on the recent federal commission reviewing Title IX regulations. However, the panel left the door open for the secretary of education to "explore additional methods" whereby institutions can comply with Title IX. Male athletes haven't suffered here (due to Title IX); there's a very strong commitment to maintain the teams that we presently have, whereas many schools have dropped some lower-profile men's sports. There are requirements, also, for our conference—the Mid American Conference—about how many sports the institution must support. We've been able to maintain our teams through strong planning by Division of Athletics staff and generosity of donors and the special state allocation for gender equity. A tuition increase really would hit the Division of Athletics because of the large number of scholarships they give.
Did you play sports as a kid?
Yes, I played basketball in college—Division III level—in the dark ages when women did not cross the (midcourt) line. I was a guard, surprising, despite my height, because my major talent was stealing the ball. I have very long arms. I had a little nickname—Flytrap.
What do you consider some of your accomplishments while a member of the IAB?
One of my areas of interest during my time on the IAB has been the development of the class-absence policy that assists student-athletes when they must miss class for athletic contests. We also developed an IAB Student-Athlete Leader Award—we gave it out for the first time last year. That's for a senior student-athlete who demonstrates leadership on campus and in the community beyond their own team. Being a member and being chair of the IAB is the best committee assignment on campus because you have so much contact with the student-athletes and the Division of Athletics staff, all of whom have such drive and enthusiasm and commitment. They give all of us a boost every time we're around them.