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His response is raising eyebrows around the country.
NCAA President Mark Emmert recently addressed a letter from Oregon congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, which called into question the diversity hiring practices within the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
In what should come as no surprise to anyone, Emmert refused to take any responsibility and immediately pushed any criticism on its member schools.
An excerpt from his response reads,
“As you certainly can appreciate, the NCAA has never had any jurisdiction or authority with respect to a member school’s personnel decisions (i.e., hiring, discipline, firing), even within an athletic department. Each college or university operates independently using its own human resources policies, state legislative requirements, and local ordinances to determine their campus-wide personnel decisions, including athletic department personnel within that institution. Even when an employee at one of our member schools has been found to have violated NCAA rules through the infractions process, none of the penalties imposed by the NCAA would suggest termination of employment. Additionally, the NCAA cannot make hiring decisions on behalf of member schools; nor could it mandate who is interviewed for available positions. Universities and colleges retain their autonomy and authority in this regard.”
The NCAA has created a handful of programs to help increase diversity, yet not many improvements in this area are being made, especially at the highest levels.
Once again, the NCAA has failed to accept any sort of responsibility for the behavior and actions of its member schools. This won’t come as a surprise to many, but one would hope that individuals in positions such as Bonamici will continue to push Emmert and the NCAA to stop making promises and start delivering results.
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