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Taking Action In Times Of Critical Change

Guest Joe Castiglione, Oklahoma; Sean Frazier, Northern Illinois; Keith Gill, Sun Belt; Chris Howard, Robert Morris; China Jude, Wyoming; Mel Tucker, Michigan State; John Roberson, Advent
1:56:25 min watch

Summary

AthleticDirectorU hosts a town hall with leaders from around the industry to discuss how administrators and coaches can work to enact change on their respective campuses. The panel discusses promoting conversations with student-athletes, best practices for universities and departments, the responsibility of coaches to communicate with their student-athletes and much more. Moderated by Advent CEO John Roberson.

 

The conversation is indexed below for efficient viewing (click the time stamp to jump to a specific question/topic). There’s also a full audio file at the bottom if you’d prefer to listen to the discussion.

  • - Opening remarks (Frazier)
  • - Over the course of your careers as leaders, what are some of the practices you have had your programs(s) engage in to promote conversations with student-athletes around issues of race, diversity and minority status? From your experience are there approaches that are largely ineffective when it comes to these types of conversations? (Jude, Frazer, Castiglione)
  • - Should the athletics department be spearheading these conversations with student-athletes, or does the institution have an obligation to have a unified message and effort across the entire student-body? What best practices have you seen universities undertake as it relates to these efforts? (Howard & Gill)
  • - What have you seen on campus that has not worked?
  • - What is the coach's responsibility in having these conversations with their student-athletes? Why only now are we seeing coaches respond? (Tucker)
  • - How does an older, white male from a privileged background, reach a level of authenticity with a sincere desire to push for change?
  • - Is anyone working or planning to work in congruence with campus/city police to build trust and increase transparency between student-athletes/overall student body?
  • - What can African-American assistant coaches say or do, to help white head coaches to better understand how to use their voice as a catalyst for change?
  • - How will you deal with season ticket holders, donors, and alumni who don't agree with where you as an administrator or where the university stands on social injustice?