The NCAA will host an Academic-Athletics Summit leading into the 2020 NCAA Convention in Anaheim, California. The summit will provide an opportunity for campus leaders to engage in a dialogue on topics impacting higher education and intersecting with athletics.
The event will focus on two topics:
- Metrics that predict student retention and other measures of academic success.
- Student engagement and deep learning beyond the classroom walls through high-impact practices and means of assessing such value-added experiences.
Organizers have invited each Division I conference to send a school's president or chancellor, provost and athletics director to the summit to engage in conversations intended to benefit both the academic and athletic units.
Additionally, student involvement in active learning practices can increase student retention, engagement and post-college well-being. Athletics departments are just beginning to delve into this area as rules change to allow more high-impact learning experiences, and they could learn a lot from their academic colleagues.
After an introductory welcome reception Jan. 21, the four-hour summit will begin the morning of Wednesday, Jan. 22. Each topic will be presented separately with an opportunity for participants to discuss specific questions in a roundtable format, with a brief report-out session. Additional time will be available for campus teams to build action plans.
Interest has been high so far among the invited conferences. Conferences already confirming participation:
- America East Conference.
- American Athletic Conference.
- Atlantic 10 Conference.
- ASUN Conference.
- Big South Conference.
- Colonial Athletic Association.
- Missouri Valley Conference.
- Mountain West Conference.
- Ohio Valley Conference.
- Pac-12 Conference.
- Southeastern Conference.
- Southern Conference.
- Southwestern Athletic Conference.
- The Summit League.
- Sun Belt Conference.
- Western Athletic Conference.
For more information or to confirm participation, contact Eric Brey at ebrey@ncaa.org.