Athletic Department Philosophy

January 2007

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth places highest priority on the overall quality of a student's educational experience and on the successful completion of all students' academic programs. We seek to establish and maintain an environment in which a student-athlete's athletics activities are conducted as an integral part of the student-athlete's educational experience. We also seek to establish and maintain an environment that values cultural diversity and gender equity among our student-athletes and athletics staff.

To achieve this end, we:

1. Place special importance on the impact of athletics on the participants rather than on the spectators and greater emphasis on the internal constituency (students, alumni, institutional personnel) than on the general public and its entertainment needs;
2. Award no athletically related financial aid to any student;
3. Encourage the development of sportsmanship and positive societal attitudes in all constituents, including student-athletes, coaches, administrative personnel and spectators;
4. Encourage participation by maximizing the number and variety of athletics opportunities for our students;
5. Assure that the actions of coaches and administrators exhibit fairness, openness and honesty in their relationships with student-athletes;
6. Assure that athletics participants are not treated differently from other members of the student body;
7. Assure that athletics programs support the instution's educational mission by financing, staffing and controlling the progrmas through the same general procedures as other deparments of the institution.  Further, the administration of our athletics programs (e.g., hiring, compensation, professional development, certification of coaches) should be integrated inot the campus culture and educational mission;
8. Assure that athletics recruitment complies with established institutional policies and procedures applicable to the admission process;
9. Assure that the academic performance of student-athletes is, at a minimum, consistent with that of the general student body;
10. Assure that admission policies for student-athletes comply with policies and procedures applicable to the general student body;;
11. Provide equitable athletic opportunities for males and females and give equal emphasis to men's and women's sports;
12. Support ethnice and gender diversity for all constituents
13. Give primary emphasis to regional in-season and conference competition; and
14. Support students in their efforts to reach high levels of performance, which may include opportunities for participation in regional and national championships, by providing all teams with adequate facilities, competent coaching and appropriate competitive opportunities.

UMass Dartmouth believes that athletics provide an avenue for students to gain valuable opportunities for personal growth. These experiences, coupled with the knowledge acquired in the academic arena, help our institution provide a well-rounded education to our students.