Students protest vote for move to Division I

Students protest the possible jump to D-I at the ampitheatre near Bibb Graves where the Board of Trustees meeting was taking place.

The UNA Board of Trustees decided to postpone the vote deciding whether or not UNA athletics will go Division I during their quarterly meeting Monday. The decision was made to move forward with the Division I discussion and planning. The board will meet June 13 to decide the future of UNA’s athletic program.

The board plans to create a strategic plan for the future of UNA athletics and the timing of the proposed move to Division I.

The Board of Trustees subcommittee on athletics suggested the board vote for the transition to Division I. The subcommittee was in charge of investigating possible outcomes of the transition in the athletics department and university as a whole.

“This was not an easy decision,” President Pro Tempore of the Board of Trustees Steve Peirce said. “It is our recommendation that the future of UNA athletics is on the Division I level.

“We are all here for what’s best for this university,” Peirce said. “Groups have met countless hours regarding D-I.”

Libby Watts-Jordan, a member of the subcommittee on athletics expressed that only three out of five members wanted the Division I move.

“The timing is the critical issue,” Watts-Jordan said. “If we move up, it is when.”

Peirce thanked SGA President Cory Hamilton, Staff Senate President Chris Horn and Faculty Senate President Terry Richardson for their concerns regarding the decision.

Hamilton worries the board isn’t taking the student body’s opinion into account when making their decision.

“I don’t feel like they are have kept an emphasis on what the students want,” Hamilton said. “The student is the consumer.”

Hamilton addressed the speculation that the student body was misinformed before the Division I referendum SGA put together.

“SGA has been a representative of the students and made sure they were informed before casting a ballot in the student referendum. I think the question should be: What has the University done to educate students?” Hamilton told the board. “As an institution, we are not ready for a leap to Division I right now. With the move, it is predicted that UNA enrollment will increase substantially. UNA is not ready for such exponential growth.”

Richardson urged the board to keep academics the focus of their decision.

“Overall, we would hope that the board keeps in mind that the university is an academic institution,” Richardson said.

“We believe that if you take the time to properly vet the necessary benchmarks and assuage the concerns you’ve heard echoed by faculty, staff, students and members of the greater community, then we will be far more successful in being the best Division II university or being the model for making a move to Division I Athletics,” Horn said.

Horn and Richardson both informed the board that their constituents adamantly oppose the move to D-I.

After the board meeting, UNA President William Cale said that he was proud of the students for voicing their opinions during the protests that SGA scheduled. Cale praised the students for appropriately voicing their opinion in such a manner.

Throughout the board meeting students protested the D-I transition outside the meeting room and in Memorial Amphitheatre. According to Hamilton, SGA sponsored the protest to bring awareness to the student body’s opinion regarding the Division I issue.