Veritas, Vol. 25, No. 07, April 1985

              Presidents discuss reforms for athletics
With the goal “to bring major reform to the system of governance of big-time athletics,” to ensure the integrity of universities and the good of student athletes, presidents and chancellors from 28 universities within NCAA Division I met during March at the James L. Knight Center at the invitation of President Edward T. Foote II.
Foote organized the twx>-day meeting, which was part of an on-going effort to unite colleges and universities with comparable interests on the subject of more effectively regulating collegiate athletics.
Since the beginning of his presidency at the University, Foote has been concerned with the system of governance within the NCAA. For the last three years he has been a member of the American Council on Education’s Committee on Division I Intercollegiate Athletics.
Acting on that concern, Foote wrote to colleagues on the Committee on Division I Intercollegiate Athletics in September 1984 and suggested the formation of a new, smaller organization to govern intercollegiate athletics among the larger universities.
Foote wrote that the NCAA suffers from two major weaknesses: “first, its sheer bulk; second, the diversity of interests it tries to represent ... With nearly 1,000 members, there are too many different kinds of issues, too many interests, for an orderly, timely resolution of problems affecting any one grouping among them.”
Last December Foote invited presidents of major universities to a meeting in March in Miami to discuss the possibility of a new organization.
The focus for that meeting shifted, however, as a result of a new Division 1 -A Autonomy Proposal passed by the NCAA in January The proposal grants a certain autonomy to the 105 schools comprising that division. As a result, the original focus of the meeting planned for Miami was changed from consideration of a new organization outside the NCAA to improvements w’ithin the NCAA necessary to make governance of intercollegiate sports at major universities more effective.
The group’s recommendations at the latest meeting in March focused on making academic priorities foremost in rule making and enforcement, in governance of large universities with large athletic programs, and in practices which exploit student athletes.
Specifically the group’s recommendations for academic reform included the following:
•	That freshmen be ineligible to participate in extremely demanding varsity sports such as football and basketball;
•	That there be no weakening of an NCAA bylaw which requires a high school graduate to present a cumulative minimum grade point average of 2.0 in the prescribed core curriculum and a combined score of700 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test or a 15 composite score on the American College Test in order to participate in varsity* intercollegiate athletics in the freshman year;
> That the minimum grade point average and the minimum score required be continued and not separately applied as some have suggested;
*	That the requirements of the bylaw mentioned above be made more flexible so that, without weakening its protection of student athletes at academic risk, it does not disproportionately burden any schools;
•	That no playing sessions be length-
ened further, and some, such as fall baseball and golf, be considered for shortening, to provide an appropriate opportunity for academic activities.
The group also proposed that schools’ recruiting practices be revised in order to relieve the pressure on prospective student athletes. Specifically, the number of visits allowed by coaches and institutional representatives would be reduced, along with the expense of recruiting.
The group proposed to restructure Division I-A and recommended the creation of a Board of Presidents to oversee effective operation of Division I-A sports. The group’s recommendations will be presented to the NCAA President’s Commission and could be considered at the upcoming special convention of the NCAA scheduled for June 21-22.
TTM to confer 2,135 degrees May 10
Four noted Americans will be awarded honorary degrees during commencement May 10. The University will award 2,135 baccalaureate and graduate degrees during the ceremony,
which will begin at 8:30 a.m. on the green adjacent to the Ashe Administration Building.
President Edw’ard T. Foote II will deliver the commencement address
Joan Ganz Cooney
Williams Edu ards Doming
and preside over the awarding of the honorary degrees. Honorary degree recipients are Joan Ganz Cooney, Doctor of Letters; William Edwards Deming, Doctor of Engineering; William Graham Claytor, Jr., Doctor of Laws; and Wilbur Eugene Garrett, Doctor of Letters.
Cooney was co-founder of the Children’s Television Workshop and now serves as its president. CTW began as an experiment in combining education with entertainment in children’s television programming, producing “Sesame Street,” “The Electric Company,” and “3-2-1 Contact.” Together, these three programs are the most widely viewed programs for children in the world. The work-
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Douglas honored by Friends of Library
by Catherine R. Espinosa
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, known by many as the “Grandmother of the Glades” for her efforts to preserve and restore Florida’s Everglades, was honored March 29 by the Friends of the UM Library and President Edward T. Foote II.
The occasion marked the 25th anniversary of the Friends of the Library, an organization founded and presided by Douglas in 1960 when she was editor of the University of Miami Press.
At a dinner given in Douglas’ honor President Foote presented the now 95-year-old environmentalist and writer with the UM’s “Order of Merit” award in recognition of her outstanding leadership and long association with the University.
Following the dinner, “The Gallows Gate,” a one-act play produced by Douglas in 1930, was performed by drama students at the Brockway Theater in the Richter Library. The play won first prize in the 1931 National Little Theater Competition.
Douglas was inspired to form the Friends of the Library by the portrait medallions of the late sculptor-artist Theodore Spicer-Simson. which are now on display at the library.
Spicer-Simson’s widow and Douglas were then neighbors and good friends. When Douglas discovered that Mrs. Spicer-Simson was selling some of the portraits along with her late husband’s correspondence with noted authors, Douglas gathered friends and supporters and established the UM “Spicer-Simson Collection Fund.”
Douglas proposed that the collection be purchased as a gift to the UM
library so that its beauty could be preserved and shared forever. And so, the “Spicer-Simson Collection Fund” blossomed into the Friends of the University of Miami Library. Since then the group’s purpose has been to encourage gifts of books, manuscripts and money for library acquisitions. The group promotes the library by sponsoring activities such as lectures and literary’ exhibitions.
Marjory» Stoneman Douglas (left) with President foote just before she received the Order of Merit