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A green example

At this year’s NCAA Convention, I was overwhelmed by efforts to embrace “going green” concepts.

Many of the institutions that make up our membership are out in front of the issue of sustainability and are making strides toward reduction of waste and energy use, building sustainable facilities, and working toward carbon-neutral campuses.

I challenge all to think of the issue as one that squarely addresses the health and safety of our student-athletes.

Think about the increase of extreme weather events that have caused cancellation of seasons and practices due to facility loss or air quality. The upcoming Olympics in China face a difficult challenge in addressing air quality issues around the Games. In California, the wildfires and resulting air quality caused the cancellations of training and competition, and in the South, Hurricane Katrina destroyed and displaced more than just athletics venues and contests.

As an organization, the welfare of our student-athletes is central to our mission. The preservation of our environment is critical to conduct events and train elite athletes.

Action on this matter does not require budget-breaking initiatives. We can recycle at athletics events, use energy-efficient light bulbs throughout facilities and offices, and reduce the amount of waste produced in the course of business. As a first step, I encourage each athletics department to form its own “green team” to facilitate discussion of the issue.

Not only do we have the opportunity to make environmentally sound decisions, we have a platform that can impact so many others to do the same.

– Gloria Nevarez, Senior Associate AD, University of Oklahoma

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A dashboard by any other name would smell as sweet

Data, analyses, benchmarks, strategies.

Higher-ed leaders are so fond of these four things that together they form business poetry.

Rhyming aside, that’s a bit of a stretch. Still, when we combine these elements into one tool, we’ve got something great on our hands.

The NCAA will unveil such a tool in May. The National Association of College and University Business Officers has been proud to play a key role in the development. We’ll release financial dashboard indicators – indicators displaying athletics revenue and expenses, the proportion of athletics expense to university expense, reliance on allocated revenue, and more. These instruments will enable Division I institutions to perform several important functions:

• Report financial data in a clear and uniform manner;

• View accurate, timely and relevant data;

• Evaluate how the institution’s academic and financial data compare with those of peers (for example, within a conference and subdivision), including self-identified peer groups; and

• Make data-driven decisions about athletics resource allocations at the strategic level.

The responsibility of the college president to align athletics with the mission of the institution cannot be met without the availability of accurate, comparable data. The dashboard indicators should increase the confidence of decision-makers, and ultimately the public, that financial decisions about athletics are soundly made.

I urge all presidents, business officers and athletics directors to check out this important new tool. The dashboards move us a huge step forward toward further integrating athletics with overall institutional goals, tightening the link of athletics with the overall educational mission.

– John Walda, President and CEO, NACUBO

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