News from Vanderbilt University

Scroll down for presentations by: Myles Brand, Todd Turner, Gene Marsh, Bob Eno, Mike Slive, opening news conference (Thursday).

The closing news conference is scheduled for 4 p.m. cst and will be posted to this site as soon as it is available.

Keynote
Academic Reform in Intercollegiate Athletics
Myles Brand, NCAA president, 8:45 a.m. on May 2 in Vanderbilt's Wyatt Center Rotunda.

Introduction by David Williams, vice chancellor for student life, university affairs, general counsel and secretary of Vanderbilt University, click to listen (mp3, 3:42) also in .wav format.

Keynote address, click to listen (mp3, 28:04) also in .wav format.

Photo, click here for a high resolution photo of Brand at the conference.

Highlights:
-"The best reality TV is college sports." (at 6:05)

-College athletics affects every aspect of society. (at 11:24)

-SAT scores are not a good indicator of success in college. (at 13:17)

Three issues for reform:
-One, initial eligibility has been solved. (at 14:09)

-Two, "If you want to participate in college athletics, you've got to be 'in' college." (at 15:23)

-Three, reforms must have teeth: rewards and punishments. (at 16:00)

-"In Division I there are 325 schools approximately, over three dozen of them
have not graduated a single men's basketball player in five years." (at 20:34)

-"We can get this done." (at 26:44)

Question and Answer period
click to listen (mp3, 20:24) also in .wav format.

Q 1 - Increasing minority participation in athletic leadership positions.

Q 2 - Does the NCAA revenue-base versus dues-base skew priorities? (at 1:15)

Q 3 - SATs as a predictor of college performance. (at 4:00)

Q 4 - New NCAA requirements' effect on high school education. (at 7:00)

Q 5 - Will the new rules contribute to grade inflation in high schools? (at 11:00)

Q 6 - 40/60/80 requirements versus standards for the general student body. (at 12:15)

Q 7 - NCAA working with high schools on both athletics and academics. (at 13:20)

Q 8 - Financial support for student athletes. (at 14:30)

Q 9 - Are there plans to scale back post-season play to help academics? (at 16:20)


Overview of NCAA regulations
Todd Turner, Vanderbilt athletic director, chairman of the NCAA task force that is studying incentives and disincentives for improving academic performance in collegiate athletics. 9:40 a.m. on May 2 in Vanderbilt's Wyatt Center.
click to listen (mp3, 38:09) also in .wav format.

click to view a .mov of Turner's power point presentation.

Photo, click here for a high resolution photo of Turner at the conference.


Keeping the Faith and Faculty Perspective as a Faculty Athletic Representative
Gene Marsh, University of Alabama faculty athletic representative. 10:20 a.m. on May 2 in Vanderbilt's Wyatt Center.
click to listen (mp3, 31:29) also in .wav format.

Photo, click here for a high resolution photo of Marsh at the conference.


Forming a Faculty Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics
Bob Eno, Indiana University faculty senate president, member of the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics. 11 a.m. on May 2 in Vanderbilt's Wyatt Center.
click to listen (mp3, 25:00) also in .wav format.

Photo, click here for a high resolution photo of Eno at the conference.</font>


Keynote
Address by Mike Slive, SEC Commissioner
May 1 at 7:30 p.m. in Vanderbilt's Wyatt Center Atrium.
(NOTE: due to technical difficulties a version of this address suitable for use in radio news will not be available - please see below for usable sound from Slive recorded at the news conference)

click to listen to Slive's address (28:54).

click to listen to the question and answer period (13:31).

Photo, click here for a high resolution image of Slive at today's news conference.


Opening news conference - Thursday, May 1, 6 p.m., Vanderbilt's Wyatt Center.

To download sound files: right click and "save target as" or just drag the blue link to your desktop. The larger wav file will provide the best quality for editing for use in radio news.

Virginia Shepherd, president of the Vanderbilt Faculty Senate and one of the organizers of the SEC Faculty Governance Conference, made opening remarks and introduced Commissioner Slive.
click to listen (mp3, 3:35)
also in .wav format.

Mike Slive, SEC Commissioner, outlined the meeting's purpose, the issues to be discussed and what they hope to accomplish.
click to listen (mp3, 1:10)
also in .wav format.

Photo, click here for a high resolution image of Shepherd at the news conference.

Q 1 - Expectations coming into this meeting? Shepherd
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 2 - How do Vanderbilt faculty feel about athletics? Shepherd
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 3 - So they are not very engaged? Shepherd
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 4 - Football scholarships tied to GPA. Shepherd
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 5 - Is faculty apathy a problem? Shepherd
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 6 - Should people who work in athletics be skeptical of this effort? Shepherd
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 7 - When did the planning for this start? Shepherd
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 8 - Will faculty go further than NCAA reforms? Shepherd
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 9 - Commercialization in college sports. Shepherd
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 10 - Do recent events in the SEC make this more urgent? Shepherd
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 11 - Is the time right for this movement given the graduation rates? Slive
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 12 - Do any SEC schools meet the benchmark? Slive
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 13 - Commercialization and a potential national college championship? Slive
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 14 - Post Season Tournaments. Slive
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 15 - Partial qualifiers. Slive
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 16 - No more partial qualifiers. Slive
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 17 - How good are the academics in the SEC? Slive
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 18 - Is using graduations rates as the measure a flawed system? Slive
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 19 - Should college athletes be paid? Slive
click to listen also in .wav format.

Q 20 - Do some athletes just not care about graduating? Slive
click to listen also in .wav format.