UMAC receives March 2018 Division III Diversity Spotlight Initiative
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind.---The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) hosted a Women's Leadership Symposium in November to provide cost-free professional development for women in the UMAC fostering education and networking to help develop future women leaders who will pursue roles in coaching and athletics administration. For its efforts, the UMAC was awarded with the March 2018 NCAA Division III Diversity Spotlight Initiative honor, announced this week during NCAA Division III Week.
The NCAA Division III Diversity Spotlight Initiative recognizes and promotes outstanding diversity related projects, programming and initiatives that are occurring on Division III campuses and in conference offices. Each month, the award recognizes an institution or conference in regard to a diversity related event, program or initiative. The UMAC will receive $500 towards its next diversity initiative as a result of being selected this month's recipient.
"We are very grateful to receive the Division III Diversity Spotlight Initiative from the NCAA," said Sara Eisenhauer, UMAC Assistant Commissioner, who led the planning efforts for the Women's Leadership Symposium. "Our membership recognized that collectively we need to improve our efforts to cultivate strong female leaders in coaching and administration, and educate female students on pathways to and careers in coaching and athletics administration. This Symposium helped us meet some of our objectives with diversity programming and is just a starting point for further opportunities we would like to provide in the future to our membership. The additional funding from the NCAA will allow us to continue working toward enhancing diversity in the UMAC."
The event – held Nov. 27 at the University of Northwestern – developed from a desire from UMAC governance to provide programming to help combat the challenges of hiring diverse coaches and administrative staff across the conference. UMAC staff and conference Senior Woman Administrators (SWAs) created and facilitated an opportunity to begin identifying qualified women already working in the conference and providing them with a foundation for building their careers in athletics.
Objectives of the programming included exposing attendees to various opportunities for coaching and administration within intercollegiate athletics; empowering attendees to intentionally develop a plan for individual and professional growth; fostering networking and mentoring opportunities among attendees; challenging women in the UMAC SWA role to develop leadership skills through assistance in facilitation; encouraging involvement in regional and national professional development opportunities; and building a list of qualified women to add to the UMAC pipeline to enhance diversity in UMAC hiring practices.
There were 60 women who attended with over 25 attendees that are junior and senior UMAC students considering careers in coaching, athletics and sports. The remainder of participants included UMAC administrators (i.e. Assistant ADs, SWAs), head coaches, assistant coaches, volunteer coaches and graduate assistants. Programming included a keynote address from Betsy Mitchell, Director of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation at the California Institute of Technology, as well as roundtable discussion led by UMAC SWAs and an expert panel of administrators and coaches from the region across all three NCAA divisions. Panelists included Kelly Anderson Diercks, Associate Director of Athletics, Augsburg University (NCAA Division III); Renae Hartl, Director of Athletics and Head Softball Coach, Luther College (NCAA Division III); Erin Lind, Commissioner, Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NCAA Division II); Julie Manning, Executive Associate Athletics Director, University of Minnesota (NCAA Division I FBS).
Feedback from survey respondents indicated overall success of the event. "I think this was a very powerful, eye opening event, especially for the students that attended. We need to continue doing events such as this in the future,” one participant indicated.
“This was something that was super helpful in reminding me as an undergrad-student to keep working to improve myself and to be ready for any opportunities that might come my way,” said one attendee.
The UMAC Women's Leadership Symposium successfully met each of the intended objectives, and conference staff is assessing ways to provide similar programming and networking opportunities in the future.
|
NCAA link |
*The Diversity Spotlight Initiative is highlighted on the front page of the Division III Homepage.